


The Spider and the Cursed Web He Weaves of Tragedy and Sin

by mikeytheauthor



Series: The Spider and His Web [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst, Artificial Intelligence Ned Leeds, Bisexual Peter Parker, Bisexual Steve Rogers, Buck Barnes acts like a dad, Bucky Barnes Feels, F/M, Gen, Hurt Peter Parker, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Irondad, M/M, Ned Leeds is dead, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter Parker is Tony Stark's Biological Child, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Protective Steve Rogers, Self-Hatred, Steve is confusion, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide Attempt, Tony Stark Has Issues, Tony Stark's A+ parenting, robo animals, spiderson, teenage angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-05
Updated: 2018-06-17
Packaged: 2019-05-18 14:15:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 14
Words: 22,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14854328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mikeytheauthor/pseuds/mikeytheauthor
Summary: Peter Parker is a curse on this world, all he has ever done is bring pain and demise onto those who didn't know better than to care for him. So he tries to make up for his past by helping the innocent and trying to bring down the biggest evil that walks his Earth at the moment. What happens when for a second, he lets a stranger who seems to have themselves handled through his cemented walls, and that stranger seems to just keep appearing?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Astronomy In Reverse](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12968454) by [pansley](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pansley/pseuds/pansley). 



> this is my first marvel fan fiction so go easy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this fan fiction contains lots and lots of suicide ideation references/illusions to self harm and even an on screen suicide attempt. if you feel the way some of these characters feel or if these things might be a trigger for you please don't read and if you feel at any point like you might want to hurt yourself please call 1-800-273-8255 you're not alone in this and it does get better it just takes time, stay safe friends.

On cold and unkind nights in New York like these, Peter Parker, or The Spider-Man often quiet enjoyed his nightly web slinging. Being on top of the world just felt right, especially as he leaned over the edge. He promised himself, that one day he’d actually do it. All of New York would probably erupt in joyus applaus too, but he couldn’t yet. Not before his life’s mission was slowly crawling to him faster than ever before.

Peter swung to the highest point in the city, holding loosely as he hung from an antenna. His whole life he’d only ever truly known the depth of one emotion; heartbreak. He’d learned to never hold anyone or anything close but his curse would never bring about anything but death. He was almost jealous of those whom he failed because at least they didn’t have to see the face of failure every morning. At least they didn’t have to live with the fact his selfishness of wanting the affection of those around him cost them their lives. He shook his thoughts from his head.

“Ned,” Pete cleared his throat, speaking to the AI he’d put inside his suit. “Find me some punching bags, preferably ones that’ll last over five minutes.”

“On it!” The voice of a mildly over excitable teenager chirped. “It looks like there might be a robbery just a couple blocks away. Should I set up the coordinates man?”

“Yeah, go ahead and put em through. Thanks Ned.”

“No problem.” 

The directions appeared in front of his eyes right alongside his personal location and vitals. He took liberties as he swung his way there, pulling off a few risky mid air moves. When he arrived overhead he saw seven men in total. Three men in the front of the alley, three men in the back, and the last man that could be accounted for was stood in the middle and was, presumably, the victim. He jumped down.

“Ned, start the five minute countdown.” 

“On it!”

Working quickly, he took the victim and webbed him up high with a much faster disintegrating version of his normal web fluid. He obviously looked very confused, and he supposed one would be when a kid wearing a black, cobalt, and copper latex suit with a spider emblem on his chest just stuck you to the wall like a piece of gum. But Spider-Man paid no mind to these things as he moved to take out the first person who charged at him.

The Amazing Spider-Man moved from person to person with grace. He swiftly took hits and returned them, webbing every villain to the nearest wall as they went flying. Out of the corner of his eye he could see the victim squirming, his arm, made out of some sort of metal hit the light in just the right way that it was almost distracting. Again, he refused to be phased, throwing a kick extra hard just for the most mild version of revenge he had to offer.

He took a deep breath as the timer went off and looked around. The victim fell straight on his ass. “That’s time. It looks like you made it with a little under sixty seconds to spare.”

“Yeah, I caught that.” Peter grumbled and stood up straight.

“Kid who are you?” The man asked, standing up himself, trying to hide the metal arm behind himself.

“Spider-Man.” He answered, checking his shooters over quickly.

“Well then “Spider-Man,” thanks for saving my ass just now.” 

“Yeah, it’s no biggie. See ya around, and hopefully on better circumstances.” Peter shrugged before swinging away.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> me again

Peter awoke in a fit of rage, kicking and screaming himself awake. He was lucky he didn’t live in an apartment complex because he surely would’ve been kicked out by now. He often had nightmares just like the one that had woke him up. In all actuality, it was far more rare that he got a full night's rest. He was sure that had happened before, he just couldn’t really remember when. He seemed to only get nightmares or night terrors. Today was definitely a terror day.

He’d dreamt of his ex, Michelle Jones, and he honestly didn’t know why that terrified him so. They dated before he decided that enough was enough and he would no longer let himself care for others. When he decided he’d put an end to the Parker curse. Before he lost his best friend Ned Leeds to a car accident.

It wasn’t just her tear filled eyes that brought about his thrashing in the early morning when he remembered how he told her that he had never loved her, so that way she’d never want him to come around again. It was the way her face contorted in pain as he spoke the vile words he didn’t mean, and how blood that flowed like river fall from her mouth and eyes when she wailed in pain. Dying in his arms, because he failed yet another innocent person. In reality, he knows that that had never happened to her, that she was safe. Safe from him. But it didn’t stop his head from creating the image of her dying and then to proceeding with perfect video of every death he’d ever cause. If someone loved him, it was definitely lady death.

He wanted to stay in bed forever and never get up, he wanted to die and never be found. He wanted nothing more than to waste away into a pile of ash that you couldn’t tell the difference from when shown both him and a really big pile of dust. It was unfortunate that he couldn’t do that while also receiving justice for those wronged, so he chose to work toward the latter for now, pushing himself up, hearing all his glorious morning “pops” as he stretched up, putting on clothes.

For a seventeen year old that could do what he could do, working and going to college seemed like two of the most boring things you could do. And it was, which was why he decided to skip that bullshit and dive straight into doing what he knew best. Building and repairing computers from salvaged parts. Which, while being fun for him, was still a pain in the ass after the soccer mom called in for the fifth time that month yelling and screaming about the virus’s on her son’s computer due to how much porn he’d been watching. Totally not his fault, but go off.

But Peter felt exceptionally tired today. Maybe he’d just revise his manifesto, go over what he wanted for his will? He didn’t have a lawyer so it was just a simple holographic. He didn’t really know what he was doing anymore, but then again he hadn’t ever really known what he was doing. He hadn't really realized who he really was until a little while ago. So he wasn’t a very trustworthy narrator here.

“Hey Ned?” Peter yelled. He had fixed the room he’d settled in the abandoned warehouse to that Ned could operate on a small scale.

“Yeah man?”

“Can you be a bro and patch me in with any calls that come through and put them over loudspeaker? I’m gonna be jumping project to project today. Any suggestions for what I should start with?”

“Well… I would suggest starting off the day with breakfast and then you should totally work on revisions for the new HamStark model in development.”

“Don’t you ever suggest anything remotely healthy like eating food or going to bed again or I’ll recode you. Rename file HamStark to Houdini please.”

“You won’t. File renaming process denied.”

“Excuse me young man? Do you even listen to me. Rename file HamStark to Houdini!”

“File renaming process denied. Go eat breakfast.” Ned sassed and Peter groaned, getting up.

“Fine, but you’re so going to pay for this.” Peter put on shoes and went out his crumbling factory fortress.

When Peter was far younger than he was now, he’d both owned a pet hamster and adored Tony Stark, so he named the thing HamStark. But of course, when the poor thing died, Peter, being himself, decided to, instead of greave, make an uncomplex AI that followed direct orders and acted just like his actual hamster. The only regrets he has is entering it into Ned’s system as HamStark instead of changing it before hand, because god, Houdini was so much cooler of a name for the now spy hamster/very, very, small attack dog he had. He supposed his creations were simply meant to torment him, just like everything in life.

Peter wandered into the heart of his city, stopping at some obscure cafe. He got a coffee, but his AI spammed him after the purchase had been made, telling him to get actual food. So he got some donuts from across the street just to shut the thing up. He frankly thought eating was a waste of time, only did as much of it he had to to survive. 

He ended up eating only one, carrying the rest in a baggy. He had his phone on him so he was sure that if Ned found any work for him, the AI’d put the call through to him. But he didn’t get one, so he walked aimlessly. Sometimes, it was nice to just observe life as it was. It was interesting to make up stories about people as they moved along to their real lives. The man that hadn’t looked up from his phone since he came into his eyesight was watching Sonic hentai, and the woman jogging with a stroller just baby-napped her niece because she thinks her brother is an unfit father. Or maybe Peter was just fucked up.

Somehow Peter wondered his way into Brooklyn. The sun was bright on his pale skin. He hadn’t been in sunlight for God knows how long. At least not really since he’d really gotten out of school. His coffee had long since been emptied, he stepped inside an auto repair shop to use their trash can. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the same metal arm from yesterday. He left a note and the doughnuts on a counter where he hoped the guy would see it. 

He managed to get himself home before his “work” hours ended for the day. No one had bothered to call today so he just did a few upgrades on Ned’s emergency coding and self awareness. Peter tried to balance his friend. He enjoyed having his AI to keep him company but he didn’t know what would happen if Ned realized the significance the name “Ned” carried for Peter, or what just to what extent Peter was not a human with cool abilities and a drive to help people even if that meant killing a couple bad guys, but a spineless, disgusting creature who’d brought his best friend back from the dead as a computer program purely because he was lonely. 

Just like last night, Ned struggled to find a fight that would last him over five minutes, or even just one that would last for five minutes. Most capping out at about two minutes and thirty seconds, which was just unfortunate for him. Better for the environment he tore apart trying to do away with those just like him though.

He would be lying to himself to say that he didn’t enjoy it a little bit when those who bring misery into the world look scared whenever they saw his glowing, copper emblem landing right besides them. He imagined how that shocked, scared face would look on Tony Stark when he beat the life out of him. Would it be the same feeling he got out of every other evil entity, leaving him with that taste of copper in his mouth and a want for more? Or would he finally feel his heartbeat steady into nothingness and complete bliss? 

The biggest mistake he’d made of the night was allowing himself to get distracted by his thoughts. When they wondered he always ended up finding himself in the worst of positions, now was no exception. The villain whom he’d knocked into the ground a minute prior had managed to sneak up on him when he webbed what he thought was the last man up. He kicked him off and pursued round two, though, it didn’t last very long. It’s not quite a fair fight when the other guy has a gun and you have reinforced latex.

Y’know, being a super genius, you’d think he would’ve thought ahead to a day where he’d be in a predicament such as this. He supposed that it was simply him being caught in his own marvel, because he made a super suit. God Damn he was stupid, he deserved this for being so stupid. He shifted underneath the barrel of the gun, letting out a sigh as it cocked.

Out of a no where, a metal arm shot out the front of his forehead, protecting from the instantaneousness of death via bullet to the black masked brain. The man went flying throughout the air, and landed up against a wall with a loud crack that sounded pretty lethal. The undented hand offered him help off the smashed glass, and web covered ground. Peter took it.

“Y’know I think we’d make a pretty great team.” Peter breathed, chuckling a little bit.

“You choked.”

“Most people do when they think they’re gonna die.”

“And that’s how you get yourself killed.”

“I don’t think anyone would really notice if I did.”

“You sound way too young to be that jaded.”

“I’m almost eighteen!” Peter said defensively. 

“Jesus.” The man, still a stranger shook his head. Looking like he was thinking pretty hard. “You remind me a lot of an old friend…”

“Oh yeah? You know you never told me your name.”

“Never threw it kid. You can call me Bucky.”

“Well, it’s good to see you ‘round Bucky. You know we gotta stop meeting like this.”

“Maybe, kid.” The man, Bucky, who seemed to be made out of stone chuckled a little. The Amazing Spider Man flew swung away once more into the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> please validate me because I'm a sad old man and this is all I have. That and my seven pets and my one singular green bean.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> look at you, reading even though it's not intense yet. It'l get there eventually but bare with me.

Is this how the characters in that one really old movie, Groundhogs Day, felt? Peter had woken up from not the same, but a similar night terror. He took a deep breath and tried to ground himself but he could only feel the cool rush of want, no, need for vengeance enter his lungs. What good were the Avengers when they had nothing to avenge. They hadn’t lost anything, nothing of true value. Not like he had. They had no right to pretend like they did, to pretend that they had voids between their shoulder blades like he did. 

“Call incoming from unknown number!” Ned announced over the loudspeaker.

“Unknown? Or is the contact just a series of expletives?”

“Unknown, it seems that the call was started through the website. Should I connect them over the loudspeaker or the headset?”

“Headset. Give me five seconds though.” Peter groaned and made his way to his desk, pulling on the wire earphones and mic he managed to make from scrap parts he found in a garbage can. “Thank you for calling on this lovely morning, what can I help you with today?”

It’s a good money making day the guy he got roped into helping wired him a pretty hefty tip. The only purpose for overly rich people, really. Maybe he’ll be able to buy some parts from that car shop for his suit. He was thinking of redesigning the interior armour and after last night, it was definitely time for that. 

Peter found his daily excursions quite the pain in the ass. There was always too much sun outside, and Peter Parker wore wire frame glasses so it just made everything ten times worse. He decided to visit his little long haired friend down in Brooklyn. Of course having to pass by a fruit stand on his way there, and since Ned liked to keep tabs on his boss through security cameras he was then nagged into eating a healthy “breakfast.”

For the second time in two days, Peter allowed the scent of oil and gas to voluntarily enter his lungs. 

“Hey kid, how can I help you today?” An older man asked him covered in sweat and stains.

“Oh, I’m just looking to buy parts.” The man laughed.

“You look a little scrawny to be building cars.” He slapped Peter on the back.

“I don’t build cars, sir. I build computers, and make robots.”

“Yeah, sure you do kid. Hey Jimmy! Come help out this kid, saying he builds robots.” He hooted and hollered, walking off.

Jimmy approached, and he just so happened to be his dear friend. “Pay him no mind.” He said in his usual monotone voice, leading him down into the warehouse. “What’chu looking for.”

“Now that I think of it, a lot of shit to be honest.” Peter shrugged, adjusting his glasses. His “hobby” of swinging around the city was pretty damn expensive, at some point letting the entire city get destroyed would probably be less costly on resources, not like he’d ever let that happen. “Is it possible for me to just buy the dingest car you guys have? I don’t want to keep coming back here for more parts if I’m honest.”

“Yeah we can do that. I can try and find a real jacked one somewhere around here.”

“Thanks, Jimmy.” Pete watched as Bucky talked to what was presumably his boss while eating a plum, which he’d gotten at Ned’s suggestion.

“The cheapest one we’ve got right now can go for a thousand.” The older man who’d laughed at him earlier, who's name was Owen said.

“I can do that, I’d have to write it all in one check though, I can’t make monthly payments.”

“That’s fine. You go write that check and Jimmy’ll give you the keys.”

Peter wrote out the check quickly. Behind the car shop were heaps of cars both beat up and freshly repaired. Bucky slipped the keys into his hand.

“I think I know you from somewhere.”

“You might. Here, have some plums. They’re supposed to improve memory.” Peter tossed the mess bag at Bucky. He caught it, bruising one of them with his unnatural arm as Peter turned to get into his “brand new’ car and drove off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> please validate me by giving me kudos and commenting stuff.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> waowewow the response to this has been phenomenal, bless up.

Three months had past without real incident for both Peter and Spider-Man, which felt so excruciatingly long for both his regular self and his vigilante, extension of self. While he’d made several improvements to his tech, he felt like he could be doing something bigger. He felt as though he could be doing something to get closer to his mission. 

“Hey Ned, when do you think the next Star Wars movie is gonna come out?” Peter asked, swinging to the next building.

“I dunno. Probably in a year or two since they released one not to long ago.”

“Yeah. You know what I miss?”

“What?” 

“Dungeons and Dragons.”

“You need to have friends to play that.”

“I’m hurt Ned. You’re not my friend?”

“I’m talking real friends, not homemade chatbots.”

“I can’t believe you. The disrespect I receive in my own home!” Peter complained loudly. “Find me something fun, meanie.”

“There’s reports of a burning building on Troye Avenue, think you’ll make it there in time?” 

“I always make it there in time.” Peter scoffed and leapt into action.

When Spider-Man arrived at the scene, the smoke stacks are high enough to see from where he had been. He scanned the crowd quickly.

“Ned, activate loudspeaker temporarily.”

“System 12-15-20-5 activated for twenty seconds.”

“Is there anybody left inside?” The Spider-Man asked, his voice going over local intercoms and his personal loudspeaker.

“My son! He’s on the top floor still!” A desperate father called out in tears. Peter felt a tinge of something that Spider-Man did not.

“I’ll get him out.”

Scaling up the building was the easiest part. He was lucky he was such a damn genius, his respirators were definitely some high quality shit. The amount of smoke in the air was something even he didn’t really wanna mess with, but he’d do it anyways.

“Guess I’m on my own on this one.” The Spider sighed, getting to work trying to find this damn kid. He rushed up, screaming for the little creature to come out of hiding. Out of a crumbling room there was a small body and a much bigger one, ushering him out while heaving. 

“Spider boy!” He, his lovely old friend Bucky from the car shop yelled to him. “Get him out! I’ll get out myself!”

“I’m Spider-Man, I’ll get you both!” He grabbed the younger boy and pulled off his mask, putting it on him. In the heated glow Bucky got a good look at the young vigilante in all his heroic glory. “Activate system 20-14-3-4-18-0-18-13-15-18.”

“System activated!” A mask shot up and covered the bottom half of his face. As soon as he heard Ned shout it in his ear, the kid was scooped into his arm, and he was pulling on Bucky.

“Hold on tight, old head!” The Spider-Man shouted over the flames, webbing Bucky’s metal arm to his leg and jumping out the window. They hit the ground just in time as the roof collapsed in on itself. Unfortunately Peter felt his cool guy card revoked as he totally looked at the explosion. He let out a breath he’d been holding, watching as the kid’s dad came and tore him from his arms gratefully

Peter watched while the father dotted over every hair on the kids head, and kissed him for every bad thought he’d had while he was up there. Peter just couldn’t look away, feeling a stab of something in his gut, and a desperate salvation for blood enter his mouth. Bucky pulled his arm off of The Spider-Mans leg, looking at him with a certain air of distrust in his eye. Something Peter Parker, a monster, was acutely aware of. Peter jumped onto the hood of a police car before running off into the night again. It seemed to be a bit of a common trend.

Pete felt great, just perfect. Absolutely dandy. Because he’d totally just revealed his actual identity to two people, and of course one of them was a kid, and the other one was something resembling a friend that could handle themselves in a fight, he still had put his mission at risk. And that couldn’t go without punishment. 

When the Spider-Man crawled back through the window, and his skin came of to reveal a sad, always sickly looking seventeen year old boy, he curled up on the floor. Under no circumstances could he compromise himself but he just had, because he didn’t want a little kid to choke to death. Was what he sacrificed worth it? What if the kid was monster of his same breed, and now he had a short, but still intimate look at how a homemade super suit should look like. He had gotten the mask back but still, he deserved his punishment.

Peter pulled himself up from his dusty floor and went treasure hunting through a little wooden jewelry box. It had been his mothers, and had little mementos from everyone he’d lost. A purple dragonfly hairpin, an empty micron felt tip pen, LEGO Luke Skywalker, a moth eaten handkerchief, a pair of old reading glasses, a pearl necklace, and a bullet stained with undeserving blood. 

He had never deserved these people or to have these momentos. His fingers ran over the cool metal of the Stark Industries bullet., thinking of Richard, who knew his secret, and saw him for what he was the moment Peter was born. A monster, and a creature made of despair. Richard Parker, the man he’d thought his father for the longest, tried to keep Peter’s own secret from him but it ate away at him, until he took his own life with his father’s gun. Peter only found out after stealing his will from the scene of the crime and the bullet that killed him, the Stark Industries bullet that killed him. 

One might imagine the shock the little boy had. Nine years old, seeing your dad’s body on the floor, cold, a dead man, because of you. But he wasn’t his dad, he didn’t deserve to mourn, he had his pregnant mom and unborn sister to take care. An obsession grew and flourished under these pretenses, between needing to take care of everyone and finding out who his father was it drove him and down and down, because he was eight and his dad wasn’t his dad and he needed to know.

Peter only found out after his mother died in labour. Ten years old and hacking into some of the world’s most advanced security systems. Peter had gone through all of his mother’s previous employers, old friends, new friends, family friends, and even his uncle Ben’s health records, trying to find the mysterious man that could’ve fathered him, the only one left was Tony Stark. 

A simple false update virus was all he needed to get in, and then he had everything he could ever want at his fingertips. If he wanted to he could even find the designs for the arch reactor or the iron man suit, but that’s not what he wanted. But he sure as hell found what he needed. He finally knew his father, and he hated it, he hated him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can I get a validation please?


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> y'all are lit

Waking up is torture, going to sleep is worse. Dreaming of bad thing happening to good people and it's always his fault. Always. That's why Peter stays awake most of the time, and keeps his eyes locked away from the clocks, or anything that resembled a mirror. Music passes time by a lot smoother, but it takes away from potential productivity, and that could not be allowed. Not when he could practically taste Tony Stark's blood on the tip of his tongue.

Peter's been working on making his own army of drones from the scraps of ones that had crash landed near his humble abode, and it was working pretty well so far. He'd implemented their prototypes into Ned's system, their code access name being 3-18-15-14-4. Their mission was to deliver vials of webbing when he ran low, and to swarm enemies if The Spider-Man was being overwhelmed.

Tonight was the one night a week when he was only Peter Parker. Pathetic, pale, Peter Parker, who meant nothing to the world other than a smooth running laptop or two. And being Peter meant he had to function like your average nerdy teenager who had no friends other than the ones he built out of found items, and Ned reminded him of that seemingly every other minute.

"Peter, go get something to eat, you're hungry."

"Peter go get something to eat, you're hungry." Peter mimicked him, his focus on trying to correct a minor malfunction in his hamster.

"Are you mocking me?"

"Are you mocking me?"

"Dude!"

"Dude! I'm busy Ned! I know you can see that, and since you're bothering me, go ahead and rename file HamStark to Houdini."

"File renaming process denied."

"Leeds, not right now. Rename file HamStark to Houdini."

"File renaming process denied."

"Alright!" Peter stood up and marched over the desk he'd made to contain all of Ned's processors. "I've had enough of you!"

"No, wait-" Ned pleaded as Peter ripped out the wire that connected the entirety of Ned to himself, leaving the machine crippled. Pete sat down at the desk, opening the ancient computer he'd made to contain Ned and all the information he allowed him to have. He went straight to the HamStark file and renamed it, relatively simple but the information had to run its course throughout the system to be accepted. Pete decided with the time he had to let the issue work itself out, he'd try and tweek Ned's brain a bit and see what he learned about that he didn't need to know.

The earliest file Ned had in him was the manifesto, something that would never change because it was perfect. He looked through everything Ned had taken notes on, ways to annoy him, things he liked, his favourite things about him, and an entire page gushing about how in love he was with his creator, but if he's a robot, or an AI, how does that work, can he even love? Is the love just simply a part of the programming? Apart of peter's plan?

The thing is, it wasn't. Because if Ned didn't love him, everything would be easier, because then he wouldn't have to think about how great he fucked over his best friend. It was weird to seem him naturally develop feelings the real Ned, his Ned Leeds felt. He deleted the file and closed the laptop shut. Going to fix the wire he'd ripped out and convinced himself that he knew what was best because if Ned, a goddamn computer program, fell in love with him, wanted to know more about him, and found out who he was. Who Ned was. There would be no telling what would happen.

"Please don't ever do that again." Ned practically gasped when he came back online.

"I won't."

"It was so weird. Everything was black and it felt like I was there forever, and no time at all and... I was scared? Please don't do that again, ever."

"I promise."

"You promise?"

"Yes."

"Can you promise me something else?"

"Sure, what is it?"

"That you'll actually go out and get some dinner."

"Fine, Ned." Peter sighed, grabbing his hoodie and heading out as the sun sunk low into the sky.

Queens is always beautiful at night, or at least he thought so. There was a lot of things he missed out on after becoming The Spider, and taking in the small things had become one of the for certain. It was okay though, he was never meant to lead a happy life. He was never meant to lead a life at all, actually.

He was a mistake. A bastard child, bringing shame onto his family with every innocent laugh and every knee scab he was closer and closer to bringing about the first death he'd ever cause. The first death that he knew his father was to blame for, but not the first death in any regard. Because making the weapon, putting bullets in it, and handing it over, was just as bad as shooting the person yourself.

Dinner was nice. He ate at this low grade Italian place and sat outside. Tons of wacky characters passed by that he got to make up all fun sorts of stories about. He even say the Sonic hentai dude again, back for revenge writing his own Doctor Eggman/Vault Boy/Mario slash fanfiction because he commented on the other persons fic about how good it was but they never replied and he decided to take that as a sign of aggression. It's now deadly competition of meme references, smut, and gross plot twists.

Peter eventually got up and left, and he had to admit, he was mildly enjoying himself, which really wasn't a good thing. Bad things happen when there's a smile on the teenagers face, mostly to innocent people. He would ignore his sinking feelings until he got home, what he always did.

For some reason his spidey sense was just going wild at him, and of course he never realizes what's about until the last second and his decent day just had to be ruined as he got pulled and pinned in the alleyway. Hey, at least it was his dear old pal Bucky.

"Who're you working for?" Bucky asked lowly, a frown deep set into his face.

"Nobody in particular, just this down to earth, chill dude named Jesus." Pete chuckled, holding his hands up.

"I don't wanna hurt you kid."

"Then don't."

"Then I'm gonna ask again, and please, I need a serious answer. Who do you work for?"

"No one, like not even my parents."

"You should listen to them kid, they know what's best for you."

"How? They're dead!" Pete laughed again. Bucky made a face. "Aw c'mon, cheer up a bit man!"

"Why are you asking me to cheer up, you're the one that just joked about your parents being dead."

"It's funny cause it's true, Bucky."

"Who's taking care of you kid?"

"Uh, me?"

"No aunt? Uncle? Older sibling? Cousin?"

"Nope! To be honest, don't know why you need to know all this, man."

"Jesus, kid." Bucky let go of Peter, allowing him to move freely but not run from him.

"Also, in all transparency, I don't think he likes me very much."

"Do you even have a place?"

"Yeah, and it's sick, and totally not a safety hazard."

Bucky sighed deeply, looking up at the sky as he looked like he was running calculations through his head. He played with his hands for a second. A moment of weakness in front of a child. "You mind if I take you up on that whole "teaming up" offer?"

"Uh-yeah, yeah, yeah! Won't let you down Buck." Pete smiled and walking on his way.

When Peter woke up the next morning he found an odd calm in his chest. Still a quiver in his lip and a chill down his arms, but his face was dry, which was uncommon to say the least. A letter at the foot of his bed sat folded, from Bucky.

"Ned, roll security footage, and please tell me how and why you didn't wake me up for our dear friend Bucky's little visit."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> validation


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> y'all are a blessing (just a fun time if you're not religious) I can't believe the response to this. Just incase you weren't filled in though, I am updating everyday so like, yeah. Another thing, I just wanted to say that since this is an au Peter acts very different then he normally would, because he's like, being an angsty piece of shit but honestly mood.

Peter arrived at some obscure diner that looked as though it was a hundred years old and reeked like it hadn't been cleaned in that amount of time either. Just as asked of him in the letter, at precisely six pm. He walked over to Bucky who was sitting at a corner booth. He wasn't wearing his work uniform, but he certainly looked like he'd just gotten off

"Hey man." Peter slid into the booth. "What's up?"

"I wanted to talk to you."

"Good, so did I. Can I go first?"

"Yeah, sure kid."

"It's a little creepy to like, sneak into peoples places when they're asleep man."

"I had to see if you were lying to me."

"About what?"

"About working for someone else."

"And?"

"You're clear."

"Well I hope that's a good thing."

"It is."

"Anything else you wanted to tell me?"

"I wanted to tell you about me."

"Juicy, character development, tell me more!"

"Kid, are you ever serious?"

"When I wanna kill somebody, yeah."

"Don't be joking like that."

"Okay, noted. Continue."

"I wanted to give you a chance to get away now."

"What do you mean Bucky?"

"I mean, that I bring a lot of danger. Danger that you might not wanna get yourself involved in."

"Bucky, when I've made up my mind about something, I usually stick to that. Whether it be on what Star Wars are the best, or if I'm going to college or not. In this scenario, I've already decided that you might be a very useful asset to me later on, so hinting that you really don't want me around isn't going to be the thing that sends me running to the hills. The only things that could send me running are insect spray and you saying the new Star Wars movies suck because they don't."

"Okay." Bucky nodded, he only got one reference, because honest to god what in the hell is a "Star Wars." "But you're moving in with me."

"Huh?"

"You said it yourself, your "place" isn't exactly the safest of place to be in the world."

"Didn't your place burn down though? Like if I remember right, that was like an entire thing like, yesterday actually."

"I was moving anyways kid."

"Okay. So like, does this mean we're gonna go on like missions and stuff?"

"The farthest mission I'm willing to go on is if you're getting your ass handed to you outside my building, other than that, you're on your own."

"Okay, I can work with that!"

"If you bring them to my house I'll kick your ass with them."

"Sounds fun." Peter smiled and the waitress came up to take their orders. Bucky got a stack of pancakes and milk with a metric shit ton of syrup. Peter didn't get anything.

"Kid, you can get something if you're hungry."

"Yeah I know."

"I'm a little surprised, I'd be thinking since you're scaling buildings and shit that you'd eat at every chance you got."

"I don't believe in eating more than I have to to survive, considering money and the fact I actually just spent most of my money on a car that I'm picking tearing up for parts."

"You're a kid, you shouldn't be worrying about none of that."

"I'm basically a legal adult."

"You're still younger than me. Still a kid."

"Whatever." Peter rolled his eyes in annoyance as Bucky called over the waitress and ordered a second plate of pancakes for him. "Why'd you pick this place anyways? I can actually smell the rat infestation."

"Because nobody goes here anymore and me and my buddy used to come here to hang out."

"Ah, the wonders of nostalgia."

"And the need to keep a low profile."

"Yeah that too." Peter begrudgingly shoved pancakes into his mouth that had just come from the kitchen.

Bucky set the money down on the table as they departed from the shabby little restaurant. "Kid, you still got that car?"

"No, I took it apart already for my suit. Did I not tell you that a few minutes ago? Does anyone ever listen to me around here? I can carry everything I need though. You just need to keep the door unlocked so I can get inside."

"Whatever you say kid." Bucky slapped him on the back and they went separate ways.

Peter managed to collect up all his "unimportant" projects, tools, and his clothes in a duffel bag and a big box. It wasn't too hard to carry around either, pretty easy actually, and Bucky's new address wasn't too far away from his little forturess under condemnation. He got the door open by himself. Bucky was reading a newspaper at the table.

"You still read the newspaper?"

"You sleep with a teddy bear?"

"Don't you just hate it when people avoid your questions?"

"I know right?" Bucky said distractedly, going back into his paper.

"Where do you want me to put my stuff?"

"Don't care. As long as you're not making a mess."

"Oh no, should I have left my personality outside then?"

Bucky chuckled. "You're funny, kid."

"I try, old man." Pete bowed and set his things down on the old floorboards. Houdini crawled out from the box of small projects he'd taken with him. Pete grabbed her and set her down to roam around.

"I didn't say you could let your mice run around."

"She isn't a mouse, she's a hamster."

"Mouse, hamster, rat, whatever, I don't care I don't want it making messes."

"Well you're in luck because she's a robot." Peter shrugged and sat at the table across from Bucky.

"You serious, punk?"

"Yeah, I made her myself when I was like six. Of course, I've done a bunch of improvements to her since then but she still has her original frame and everything. Had to replace the fur a couple times. You'd think she'd learn not to jump on my head when I'm binging on my bootlegs with some ice cream."

"Guess, you've gotta be some super genius or something?"

"Guess." Peter shrugged. He'd grabbed some of his tools from the box so he could work on his web shooters. He slipped them off and set them on the table.

"And what are those?" Bucky asked, setting his newspaper to the side for a second.

"My web shooters."

"So it doesn't actually come out of your body?"

"It does, but it isn't that great." Pete demonstrated by releasing some out of his wrists through small slits, but it looked a lot less impressive than what he used to swing over buildings with. "The natural stuff is prone to snapping prematurely and is water soluble. The bracelets that go over top puts a special coating over top of it that changes it ever so slightly. Say if I wanted to keep a civilian out of danger without having to keep them there for hours on end, like what I did to you the night we met, I'd press in the number for the web type I want, or tell my AI, Ned to plug it in, which, in this case would be a five minute to two minute non-water soluble formula and boom! It has those qualities!" Peter smiled. He enjoyed getting to explain his inventions.

"So what's wrong with it?"

"Huh?"

"You took them off and you have a bunch of tools. I'm assuming that there's an issue in it that you have to fix. What's wrong with it?"

"Oh there's nothing wrong with it, I'm just going over the kill feature and improving it."

"Kill feature? Look kid, if you're living under my roof you better not be going out there and killing people at night. It's not right."

"I don't kill just any everyday person or criminal. There's only one person that the feature is for, and he deserves it."

"And who's that?" Bucky asked, his face filled with unreadable emotion.

"Tony Stark."

"Iron Man? Thought he was supposed to be a good guy."

"You think that because you don't know him like I do. He's probably one of the biggest evils to walk this Earth."

"What makes you say that?" Bucky actually looked confused. He looked conflicted, like he has something to feel guilty about.

"Because he let a little girl die! What else do you want me to say man! Dude's an asshole."

"Okay." Bucky nodded a little and decided to back off a bit. He went back to his paper as the day past them by. Peter working on his web shooters was great background music but eventually that tapered off as he finished them up. Slipping them back on and putting tools away. Bucky looked up to his clock. "It's getting late kid. You should go to bed."

"I normally don't sleep, I'll be fine."

"I didn't ask."

"So you're just forcing me to go to bed?"

"Yup."

"That's fucked up."

"Hey, language, kid. And yeah, sure it is."

"English, and whatever." Peter laid down on the couch, which was a little uncomfortable but it was whatever. Bucky threw Pete's stuffed animal at him.

"Don't you think you're a little old to be sleeping with teddy bears?"

"So you abandon your friends as soon society tells your too old?"

"What?"

"What?"

"Go to bed kid, you're messing with my head."

"Whatever you say, dad." Peter hopped on the couch with his stuffed teddy bear in an angsty huff.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> see you tomorrow friends. Comment all of my grammatical mistakes or something.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so this chapter is like sad-ish but tomorrow there'll be a year skip ahead in canon

Ringing in his ears. There's a hand on his chest holding him down but he still shoots up and punches who ever was on top of him in the face. Which is so very luckily Bucky! Yay! And he's crying too which is fun. He wipes his face of tears.

"I'm, so sorry." Peter breathed, standing up to help him up off the floor. He took his hand.

"Shit, kid." He huffed.

"I-I didn't mean it I just-"

"I know you didn't.

"Are you mad?"

"I'm upset you didn't tell me that you scream in your sleep, but no, I'm not mad."'

"I'm sorry."

"It's fine, kid. But I need you tell me what to expect." Peter nodded a little. "I'm gonna go fix breakfast."

Peter sunk into the wooden chair, looking much like a little kid caught doing something bad. He looked small, he looked pathetic. But to Bucky not the pathetic "I wanna beat it up," the pathetic "I want to take care of it." Like a little kitten in the rain without his momma. Bucky could only imagine what his kid has gone through if he had no one and lived in an abandoned factory.

"Penny." Peter said after a while, waking Bucky from his trance of making poor quality pancakes.

"Huh?"

"That's who I dreamed about. Penny Parker."

"Who was she?"

"My little sister. I dreamt she was still cuddled up in my arms, like the little sweetheart she was. And she was laughing at- at something... I don't know what, but she looked up her face, it just wasn't right, and she was so cold. She was telling me how it was my fault, and how I did this to her, and... I don't know why I'm telling you this." Peter dropped his head onto the table, his eyes filled with heavy tears. Bucky dropped the fork he was using to flip the pancakes and went over to him.

"How... old was she Peter?" He asked with worry in his voice.

"She was six, and she was sick, and it was all my fault." He choked out.

Bucky had absolutely no clue what to do. When he was alive, boys didn't cry, if they did, they were told to man up, but that's not exactly something you tell to someone who lost a little sister and were convinced it was their fault. Someone who was already too messed up. Bucky wrapped his arms around him, letting him cry into his stomach.

"I'm such a failure, and look at me I'm crying all over you." He wiped his eyes, trying and failing to collect himself.

"Kid, it's not your fault."

"Yes it is! I'm a monster! I let her die!"

"You where a kid, Peter. You are a kid. It's not your fault that she died."

"I could've done something!"

"You probably couldn't have. It was probably just meant to happen that way, which sucks, but you're here for some reason. How about do that for her?"

"Okay. I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"Getting your shirt all wet."

Bucky chuckled a bit. "You're forgiven, kid."

"You forgot my name that quick?" Peter cracked a sad smile, wiping the rest of his tears.

"I just might have, punk."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> see you next year leave a comment if you wanna or something


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> welcome to the second half of the fiction almost done

It's hard to believe that it's almost been a year since Peter and Bucky met. Since then they had actually gotten relatively close. They've got a pretty good mentor-mentee relationship going on, even if they're both really emotionally constipated.

Bucky had to work on the "anniversary" of their first meeting, so he had wanted to celebrate before. They went down to that little diner that Bucky liked, since Peter didn't really care where they went. Peter was way more excited about the present he made Bucky, he'd been working on it in the lab at the factory for a pretty long time. And honestly, it was killing his back trying to lug the thing around in a duffle bag.

Peter pushed open the door. The same, not so appetizing scent of waterlogged drywall hitting his nose as he stepped inside the red four walls that were covered with black and white checkers. He went to their usual seat where Bucky was, as per usual. He happily set the bag down in the seat next to him.

"Hey kid, how you holding up?" Bucky asked, looking up from his menu like he was going to get something other than his usual order.

"I'm good, you?"

"Same, and how many times I gotta tell you boy? Being "perfectly on time" is not showing up on the dot." Bucky chastised.

"Yeah, yeah, I know Buck. Be early, be early, be early! I'm never early, I'm always on time, there's nothing I can do to stop it."

"If you're on time you're late."

"The some might call it being fashionably late."

"I think you gotta have a fashion sense before you can be fashionably anything, kid."

"I can't believe you! And to think I spent the past week making you the best gift you'll ever receive ever." Peter said, faining hurt.

"Oh yeah, and what's that?" Bucky raised an eyebrow, taking some actual interest.

"If I've kept it secret for the past week, why would I spoil it now?" Peter rolled his eyes and moved the duffle bag into his father figures hands. "Ned, temporarily highjack cameras please." Peter whispered.

"Already done."

"You're a lifesaver. Open it!" Peter enthused.

He was rarely this excited for anything, he sent a prayer that this was not Tony Stark's head and a random assortment of his body parts while a newly installed TV gently played the news. He unzipped it. A golden snout popped out of the heavy duffle, and then two floppy ears, four legs, and a tail. Peter had this anxious look on his face, his socially inept personality desperately trying to search for an inch of emotion on him. He must be making the face again.

"Peter, you know we can't take care of a dog." He said with dejected tone.

Yet, his face lit up. "Good thing it's not a dog." He whispered excitedly.

"What is this?" Bucky asked.

"It's Houdini but on a much bigger scale! She is programmed to defend just like Houdini is but it also has the entirety of the service dog training right inside it. The main mission is protection and defense but the secondary is making sure you're okay. When we get home I'll show you how to turn it on."

"That's... thank you, kid." Bucky said, a bit choked up.

"It's no problem. I wanted to do a little better than a "#1 dad" mug or a tie or something."

"You know you didn't have to get something right?"

"I know. It's why I didn't get you anything for easter."

"You said you forgot!" Bucky put a hand over his heart, it was his turn to feign hurt. The dog who lacked a name leaned over to make sure he was fine and not having a heart attack.

"I should've been actor." Peter smirked, leaning back into his faux, red leather seat. "So what are you gonna name it?"

"Dunno, is it a boy or a girl?"

"I didn't give the dog a dick, Bucky, that's a waste of parts and very not timely of you."

"Hey! Language! And usually people get their own ideas about stuff, like lemons and boats are girls or some shit."

"Yeah, but that's weird. Just give it a name. And language to you too, old man."

"Hey, I fought for this country, I get to say swears."

"A tyrant you are." Peter rolled his eyes. "You got a name yet?"

"Ollie?" Bucky asked.

"Man, it's your dog!"

"Okay then, it's Ollie." Bucky cracked a smile, running his hands over his new friend. "Now I feel guilty for getting you a plant."

"Why'd you get me a plant?"

"To make up for the oxygen you waste when you ask dumb questions like that. "

Peter pouted again and the waitress came around to take their orders. Two plates filled with pancakes with too much syrup and two cups, one of apple juice the other of milk. They ate quietly for the most part, silverware clinking against the porcelain platters. Peter looked up at the TV, they were talking about the UN which were meeting to discuss the accords.

Peter knew pretty in depth what the Sokovia Accords where and what they meant. It meant that superheros throughout the globe were going to be put in check, which he agreed with. What he didn't agree with though, was the part where your secret identity would be released to the world. Before he met Bucky, he would've considered it, probably even signed it because it would've brought him closer to killing Tony Stark, but now he had what little reminisce of family Bucky was, and he couldn't put him in danger. His second, and last gift for today would be him taking apart the suit and destroying the parts. Maybe Bucky wouldn't understand right now, but he would later.

But they were not discussing what was being said in the room where everything happened. They were talking about what had happened. A terrorist attack done by James "Bucky" Barnes, The Winter Soldier. Time felt as though it had been put on a stand still, he watched as Bucky looked over his shoulder to see it for himself. He knows he didn't do that but the kid didn't. An air filled with panic filled his lungs, a moment of weakness in front of a child who knew him but not his past. Who he tried to keep ignorant as long as possible.

'Bucky-" Time resumed. Peter's eyes darting back to stare holes into his chest. "Is that you?"

"Kid, I didn't do it I swear-"

"I didn't ask that. Is that you?"

"What do you-"

 

"Are you the fucking Winter Soldier Buck?" Peter whisper yelled leaning forward heavily.

"Yes."

"Thank you." Peter stood up and threw cash down on the table, he walked right out the front in a huff. Bucky went to go and chase him, he doesn't have time for this, he needs to get out of the country yesterday.

"Peter!" He yelled, quickly catching up with him, emptied duffle in hand and service dog following after him.

"What Bucky? I'm thinking." Peter complained, walking as quickly as possible.

"Look kid, I'm sorry I didn't tell you and you have every right to be angry-"

"I'm not angry, I'm upset, not angry! I need a minute to think so the both of us can get out of the country without dying." Peter huffed out, taking his duffle from Bucky.

"Kid, you don't have to leave."

"Kid you don't have to leave." Peter mocked. "I built you a fuckin robo-dog, that's about as close as you're gonna get to me regularly saying "love you dad." Take this as multiple grains of salt, I'm not going nowhere Buck, you're stuck with me."

Bucky nodded a bit, looking up a security camera as he passed in front of it. "Thanks kid."

"For what?"

"For staying."

"What a cute father-son relationship we have. Now shut up, I'm not done thinking."

"Aye, aye cap."

Peter's feet moved in tune with his thoughts, speeding up when a rush of ideas sprung at him, and slowing as he focused in on one in particular. "You need a haircut, and a shave."

"I don't think right about now is the time for those jokes."

"No. Think about. People know you as long haired, scruf having, scary metal arm, man. Since we're under a time crunch, I can't synthesize fake skin. If you go mostly bald without scruff people won't recognize you, especially not when you're dressed you normal clothes."

"Also not the time for a shopping trip."

"We take one out of the theatre kids book and do a quick change. You're allowed to stretch out one of my shirts."

"Thank you for sacrifice."

"Excuse me, I thought we weren't allowed to make jokes!"

"I've already fought for this country, I get to make jokes whenever I want to." Bucky shrugged as they reached their apartment. He unlocked the door, but not before giving Peter a look as if to say "this is your last chance." Yet his kid kept his face straight, starring ahead like a proper soldier. He was too young to be going through what he was. Didn't deserve it, he deserved something better, like rich parents who cared, best of both worlds.

Bucky opened the door, and low and behold, his dear old friend standing in his kitchenette.


	9. Chapter 9

"Heads up Cap, German Official Forces approaching from the south." Sam spoke to him through his ear piece.

"Understood." Steve nodded, flipping through Bucky's bullet journal, a printed picture of his face covering one of the pages. He closed it as he turned to look over his shoulder, two figures standing behind him. One a boy, and the other Bucky. "Do you know me?"

"You're Steve. I read about you in a museum." He stood staggered with the boy, so if anyone, including him tried to get to him, Bucky would be there first.

"They've set the perminature." Sam warned.

"I know you're nervous, and you have plenty reason to be, but you're lying." He took a step forward and Bucky stepped back. Like a bad waltz, with a lot of room for Jesus and a party of twelve.

"I wasn't in New York, I don't do that anymore." Bucky shook his head a bit. His little friend, looking between him and Buck.

"They're entering the building." Sam spoke.

"Well the people who did are coming here now, and they're not planning on taking you alive."

"That's smart. Good strategy."

"They're on the roof, I'm compromised."

Peter could hear the men quietly but not so much, marching in their ranks up the hall. He could smell the rubber on their boots, and the metal on their dog tags and crosses from here. He looked over to his father figure, whose head hang lower on his shoulders. Peter was glad he wore his suit underneath his clothes today.

"This doesn't have to end in a fight Buck." Steve attempted to plead with him as he walked a little closer to the door. Peter could almost taste the battering ram on the old wood of his apartment door.

"It always ends in a fight." Bucky sighed.

"Five seconds." Sam announced.

"You pulled me from the river!" Steve exclaimed and Bucky slipped off his gloves. "Why?"

"I dunno." His dear friend provided, not meeting his eyes.

"Three seconds!" Sam strained in his earpiece.

"Yes you do." Steve pressed his friend.

"Breech, breech, breech!" Sam yelled.

Two explosives shot threw their living room window Captain knocked the first back through where it had came from but left horrible ringing in Pete's ears. The second, Peter caught without looking. He tossed it over to The Captain America, who, did he happen to mention was in his actual living room right now? The Captain hit on the ground with his shield, dropping it on top of the explosive to minimize its damage. Peter honestly felt really badass, here comes his card, floating back to him, he just has to remember to not look at the explosion next time.

The battering ram had started at the door and Peter lurched forward, all the noise combining with his enhanced senses made for a not so good time for him. Bucky steadied him and pulled the mattress up from the floor just in time, blocking a short spray of bullets. He tossed it aside and threw the table to wedge itself between the door and the drywall.

As soon as the table had been lodged, two men flew through the window. Peter hopped into perfect position, kicking the first guy in the face. Steve knocked the rug out from the second one's feet as he tried to shoot and Peter and Bucky. Buck knocked the first man out cold as tried to get back up. Through the backdoor, another man tried to enter as Bucky and Peter went to run out. Steve grabbed his gun, tearing it from his hands while Bucky knocked him down. Peter had jumped onto the wall, his under-armor mask had already shot up on his face.

"Buck stop!" He pleaded with his friend. "You're gonna kill someone!" He had genuine worry in the tenor of his voice. Bucky knocked him over, Peter punched through a previously repaired hole in the roof, pulling out a bag and tossing it to his father figure. Bucky punched his own hole straight through the floor. Bucky had told him how to set it up, how to remember where it was but he had never told him why he would ever need it. He could assume this was the reason why.

"I'm not gonna kill anyone." He said, ripping his bug bag out of the dust. He threw both his and Peter's bags out the window to the building over.

Another man had made his way through, shooting at Bucky and Steve while haphazardly ignoring the boy on he ceiling. Peter jumped onto his shoulders, covering his vision with his shirt, which he had taken off to reveal his copper coated, spider insignia. While distracting him he managed to disarm him, weaving his way through a mess of limbs and knocking him out.

Steve had put his shield in front of Bucky to protect him from the incoming shots, but did not see the man coming up behind him. Bucky threw Steve at him putting him out at the balcony, giving both him and Peter some get away time as more men came up their path. Someone was trying to shoot through the door, so Bucky knocked him out, permanently opening the door as they charged forward. Peter made his way up the walls, grabbing at people and swinging them. He hit them on walls and webbed them as he and his father made their way through the crowd. Mr. Rogers, they're dear old friend of course catching up with them.

Peter had no clue what was happening, of course he didn't. Everything was absolute chaos, Peter just knew if they were shooting at Bucky, they were bad. So he just followed his father figures lead, making way for them to jump over to the next building. The main thing he was confused about was Steve Rogers, of course he knew that Bucky and Steve were friends (possibly lovers? he had to make that case for debate once,) he had taken every history course ever required of him to graduate and about half of them somehow managed to wrap back around to Steve Rogers this, Bucky Barnes that. Though, he didn't know why they were running from him. He'd question it later when they weren't being shot at.

Bucky swung down to the next level using the railing as a swing. He kicked down the door and went to jump to the building. Peter jumped onto the man who'd dropped from the ceiling, aiming his gun at the others with guns as he used his body to get him to the nearest window. Peter broke through it and jumped to the roof. He sucked in a deep breath as Bucky landed beside him, they grabbed their bags and Bucky nodded to him.

As they started to run off together, another man came flying in, knocking Bucky over. Peter rushed over as they both regrouped themselves, grappling onto the cat man's back while Bucky tried to take shots. He threw him off after a couple seconds, sending him flying into a pipe or something, while Bucky and the cat guy hashed it out. Peter got back up and knocked him off, struggling with him and his damn claws while Bucky got up and punched the dude in the back.

"Sam, southwest rooftop!" Steve announced into his earpiece.

"Who the hell are the other guys?" Sam asked as Steve backed up, preparing to make the jump his friend and the kid that was following him like a puppy had just made.

"Bout' to find out." He jumped onto the rooftop, a helicopter entering the scene as he ran over to get the cat guy off his friend.

Shots rained from above, rickashaying off the cat dude and thankfully missing Bucky. A few strays hit the kid with the spider on his chest but they too bounced right off. The Cat guy looked at the kid who was presumably Spider-Man quizzically.

"Sam-"

"Got em!" Sam swooped in, kicking the tail of the plane, sending it into a spiral. He quickly got back out of the situation.

Bucky and Peter had managed to escape once more, both grabbing their bags as they hopped to the next level. Bucky looked over his shoulder to see the cat going straight down the side of the building, like he was going through Sarah's drapes. They both jumped again, Peter reaching the bottom first because he had not taken notice of the cat guy. They took off running again and the Captain took a great leap in an attempt to catch up with them.

The helicopter did not let up. The shooting continued as Bucky and his adopted son jumped through the skylight of an underground highway. Peter grabbed onto the roof, following after him still as he stayed high. An undercover cop's car blasted sirens to what Peter felt like was right in his head yelling "Stand Down!" as it pulled up next to Cap. Bucky hopped over cars while Steve got inside of one. The cat guy staying to the left of Steve, until he decided it was time to hop onto the car.

"Sam, I can't shake this guy."

"Right behind you."

Steve crashed into a fellow cop car as they had started to pile in. Trying to get the kitty off his ass. As another skylight came overhead, Bucky hopped over into another lane, these cop cars were really just coming from every direction. Steve swerved his cop car to follow, crashing through the plastic barriers.

As the sunlight hit their collective eyes, a motorcycle just so happened to drive by. Bucky knocked the person off, turning it around and sitting in it. Peter grabbed onto the edge of the structure and launched himself forward into the sky. As Bucky took off, he jumped onto the back of the seat. He remained standing, if he could defy gravity and hang off the celling, and The Captain's Shield could defy the basic laws of physics, he was pretty sure he could ignore the rest of the laws too. Be they social or physic.

Bucky weaved through the incoming cars with ease while Peter held on tightly. Peter faced the opposite direction of his father figure. He grabbed the cat man out of the sky like a fly as he came down on them. He kicked Peter off balance and sent the both of them flying, Bucky staying on his cycle. Peter struggled against him, hitting him hard with an upcut before running to catch up with his dad.

The Falcon had caught up to the madness, cat dude gripping onto him as he flew by. Falcon threw him back at the motorcycle. Peter had gotten back on the bike and jumped to reach the ceiling where he planted a tiny bomb Bucky had handed him to block the exit.

As Peter sighed in relief, thinking that they had just dodged a bullet and gotten away for now, but the kitty cat had pounced once more. Taking out the back tire and pulling him down in one foul swoop. It sent the three of them tumbling down the road. Steve had sprung out of the car just in time. His shield swinging in the light once again as he went to aid his friend.

The cat had gotten back up but Peter laid still a few feet away from Bucky. A greater sense of panic set in because Bucky really did not want Peter to die and have it be his fault. The kitty climbed on top of him, claws unsheathed, but The Captain tackled him, pushing him back into concrete.

Cop cars swarmed the area as The Captain stood, chest puffed protective of his Bucky. The cat stood back up, but the boy stayed still, his chest rising and falling still. Bucky reached out for the boy, not him. His name was Peter according to his faint whisper. War Machine landed beside them, helicopter coming back overhead. His guns pointed at all of them.

"Stand down now." He ordered. The cops had gotten out of the cars and pulled out their weapons, ready to fire if even just one of them took the tiniest step. The Captain put his shield on his back. "Congratulations Cap, you're a criminal."


	10. Chapter 10

Peter and Bucky were put into mobile cells. He could see Bucky's had the number twenty-three on it when they were being transported into a holding room. Pete wondered what his special number was, it would be ironic if it were seven. The cuffs around Peter's wrists were too big, he could easily escape if he wanted to, but he didn't want to make things worse for his dad. Though, the bright lights in his face was making him feel worse by the second.

Peter guessed they didn't have enough rooms in the building that could contain these cells, so he and Bucky were back to back. Peter never would've expected that he would end up in jail, so he was trying not to freak out. Though, this wasn't really jail, this was just a holding cell, a holding cell that really didn't care that his senses were at like, twenty, right now and the bright lights were honestly giving him a killer migraine. He could hear everything. He could hear Bucky's heartbeat, it was surprisingly calm, he didn't know if he should be worried about that.

It wasn't too long until Peter could hear footsteps. It was a lot longer than what it took for the person to arrive through the door. He could hear it opening and closing while the footsteps drew nearer.

"Hello Mr. Barnes, and company, I've been sent by the UN to evaluate you. Do you mind if I sit?" A man, with a light accent asked to no response. The scrape of a metal chair on concrete as it was pulled out and scooted in. A suitcase being lied on the table with extra caution. "Your first name is James? I'm not here to judge you. Just to ask you a few questions. Do you know where you are, James? I can't help you if you don't talk to me, James."

"My name is Bucky."

"Tell me Bucky, you've seen a great deal, haven't you?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"You feel that if you open your mouth, the horrors might never stop? Don't worry, we only have to talk about one."

The hairs on Peter's arms had long since been raised. He could not help the tinge in the back of his head that screams this guy is bad news. His voice painted Peter a picture of this slimy, creepy man with big teeth, wide thumbs, and weird eyes that didn't look right as they stared down his dad. The wanted to tare off his skin just having to listening to the guy speak, the need to escape scratching at his cuffed wrists.

The lights went out.

"What the hell is this?" Bucky asked, emergency red lights blinked silently.

"Why don't we discuss your home? Not Brooklyn, no. I mean your real home." Peter could hear the suitcase open and something being pulled out, something being set aside. Of course, just his Parker luck, his adoptive father was a sleeper cell, but Peter couldn't move, he was paralyzed at the thought. He never killed because he wanted to. Because he had to. He probably had to watch himself as he did it, unable to stop.

"Желание."

"No."

'Ржавый."

"Stop."

'Семнадцать."

"Stop!" Peter could hear a quiet storm brewing, Bucky's metal arm fighting a little against his cuffs.

"Рассвет." Now, Bucky only screamed in response. Peter slipped out the restraints that were meant to keep him down. The noises Bucky made causing his ears ring, he crawled up to the top of his cell and dug through his pockets trying to find anything that could help him they might've left on him.

"Печь." The restraints on Bucky snapped off like rubber bands. His first started to smash against the bullet proof glass. Of course they had left Peter nothing, not even his watch where he kept Ned half of the time. He would have to get creative with his hands. Getting creative meant biting wires and using fingernails as screwdrivers. But Peter felt a sinking sensation he didn't have that kind of time. He webbed his arms to the top of his cell and braced himself.

"Девять." Peter used his weight as a battering ram. Slamming his feet against the window as hard as he could and as fast as he could.

"Доброкачественный." Peter was scared deep to his core that it wasn't enough. Peter is frightened, he had allowed himself to go and get close to another person even though he knew damn well what the rules where. He'd gone an entire year without realizing what he was doing, putting Bucky in danger.

"Возвращение домой." He'd allowed Bucky to get close and this was the price he was paying.

"Один." He'd infected another innocent man trying to live his life with his curse.

"Грузовой автомобиль." And he was too late to stop it.

Their cages crashed open at almost the same time, Peter's was just a second delayed. He doubted the guy who woke up The Winter Soldier noticed the secondary clang. Not with how absolutely ecstatic he had to be right now. Waking up the world's most dangerous assassin and all. Must have a total goddamn hard on right about now.

"Soldat?" The man asked, or what Peter implied to be asking on the basis of his tone's intonations.

"Gotov v выполнять."

Peter crawled onto the tops of their cells, only his eyes and his messy brown hair peeking above into a possible line of sight. There was a vast difference in body language between Bucky and The Winter Soldier. His shoulders hunched forward, his hair covering his eyes. He didn't look at people, he looked straight ahead, like a proper warrior. Focused only on one thing.

"Mission report. December 16, 1991."

Peter could only feel his head spin, and footsteps down the hall. He could hear Russian but he couldn't understand it, but he knew he was talking about killing people. His dad was talking about killing people. No. Not his dad. Bucky, was talking about killing people, it made him feel sick, he ducked back down for a minute. Bucky attacked every guard in the room while the dude who triggered The WInter Soldier out of him got down on the floor to feign hurt when Captain Rogers and Sam walked into the room.

"Get up." Steve said, not buying his bit for one second. When he did not listen, Steve scooped him up himself. "Who are you, what do you want?"

"To see an empire fall."

As Sam entered the room the rest of them had already been, The Winter Soldier attacked him, missing, but barely. His fist crashing through the concrete hurt Peter's ear enough to shock him off the cell blocks and onto the floor. They fought, Winter punching him in his gut to knock the air out of his lungs while he gripped his jaw, pinking up Sam and throwing him into the cell block.

Peter and Steve rushed at him, but Winter could really focus on one person at a time, so he went after Steve. He threw heavy hits at Rogers while Peter struggled to grapple onto Winter. Winter shrugged him off easily though, sending him into the desk. Winter kicked Rogers through the door and led the fight towards the exit of where ever they were. Peter managed himself and got up again. There was a dent in the elevator, and Steve struggled with The Soldier's metal arm as it powered up.

Peter wrapped his arms around Winter as he sent Steve down the elevator shaft. He webbed Steve as best he could as Winter tossed him to the side once more. Peter tumbled into Sam who was getting up. Seeing the man sent by the UN run off, Sam grabbed the kid, pulling him up before he chased after the UN guy.

Steve looked down. His feet dangled but a few inches from the floor, he moved a bit, and whatever was holding him snapped under his weight. Making him fall straight on his ass. He got up to climb his way out of the elevator shaft.

Sam ran up the stairs trying to chase this dude. Completely forgetting about the spider-kid. The alarms had already started to go off. From the top floor, the UN dude peered over the banister at him before taking off again. Peter had managed to pass the both of them crawling on the ceiling, catching up with Winter.

No matter how many people came to him, The Winter Soldier still passed straight through them. Like they were nothing but the wind on his skin during a brisk jog. A man with a stick tried to take him down, but he threw him on a table as another man with another stick came hurling at him.

Out from behind a pillar, Tony Stark had powered up a gauntlet, shooting it at The Winter Soldier as he shot the guy on the table. It stunned him momentarily, the shock shaking his ears and making Peter drop from the ceiling, beside Winter. Peter groaned quietly but tried to get up while Tony set off another blast, sending Peter and Winter back to the ground. Tony jumped over the bodies that lied on the floor. He moved to disarm him but Bucky bounced back quickly while Peter did not.

Winter tries to shoot Tony, his gauntlets luckily catching it, but not before Winter catches the fear in his eyes. Peter jumps onto Winters back, kicking him hard with both feet while Tony ripped a piece of the gun from Winter and bitched slapped him with it. Winter plucked Peter off and threw him at Tony, sending them both across the room.

Agent 13 jumped in, throwing quick hits that still landed heavy. Winter attempted to strike but she dodged and moved to back off. Natasha took her place, but only to distract him while Agent 13 got a better position, kicking him in the back. She tried again but Winter threw her through a table. Natasha jumped into his arms, spinning and wrapping her thighs over his face. She slammed her elbows into his head, trying to get his hurricane like path to slow, but like any true hurricane, it moved right through her. Winter put her in a chokehold.

"You could at least recognize me." She whispered out.

Cat dude, or Prince T'Challa and Peter ran up on him at the same time, Peter coming from his left and the prince coming from his right. Winter turned towards the greater threat, T'Challa. The prince whipped out high kicks and fluid dodges, he reeked of skill. Peter flew above and between them both, taking stray hits as he tried to web Winter. Winter just wiped it away, at most it was a distraction. A distraction that angered him, Winter hit the prince and knocked him over, grabbing Peter and throwing him on the floor. Stomping extra hard on his rib cage to insure he stood down.

Winter made his way up the stairs. The prince jumped up to him to continue the fight while Peter went out to the roof. T'Challa managed to gain the upper hand, locking Winter's arm in place after spinning him around. He held it tightly. Winter flipped them both, sending them back down the stairs. They exchanged punches, but T'Challa kicked him and crashed him into the wall, allowing for him to slip down to the main floor. T'Challa jumped down to the floor to Winter, but when he looked up to send for Winter, he was gone.

Winter had escaped to the top of the building where the helicopter was located and where Peter had decided his last stand would be against the shell man he'd called dad for the past few months. Winter marched up onto the pad and Peter had already started slinging webs at him. He either dodged them, or tore them off. As he got closer, Peter flipped over him, webbing at his flesh arm. That worked! He ripped him back and slammed him into the concrete. Bucky's body left a giant crater in the paved walkway, but Winter still got up. The back door opened as Winter marched up again.

"Bucky!" Peter tried. "C'mon dad you gotta wake up!" Winter didn't listen, hitting him in the mouth, but Peter held on. "Bucky..."

"I don't know a Bucky." He used Peter's body to knock down whoever had walked through the door.

Winter climbed into the copter, buckling into his seat while Rogers brushed off what was apparently his friend's kid. The helicopter whirled to life as it prepared for take off. As it lifted off the ground Steve grabbed onto the landing slide, pulling it down. He struggled with it, unable to keep his ground as it dragged him on. Steve held the slide and the edge of the pad, trying to land his friend. Winter jerked the control, almost crashing into Steve, but absolutely crashing into the side of the pad.

The helicopter spun around as it died and Steve got up to try and get his friend out okay. Through the windshield, Winter's natural arm shot through, fingers wrapping around the Captain's throat. Peter tried to get up, the copter teetering over the edge with Bucky inside but everything ached. He stumbled up. He watched as Winter and Steve fell over and Peter followed despite his body's protests, he'd heal later.

Steve and Bucky rose to the top of the water. Sneakers danged a few inches above, wrist attached to a thread with a hand wrapped around it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> please validate me with your theories of what what you think the ending will be.


	11. Chapter 11

The kid wouldn't get off the ceiling and he and Steve were currently having the world's weirdest staring competition in the world. He'd asked him to come down about twenty minutes ago and the most he'd done in that time was breathed and blinked. Steve doesn't think Bucky's kid likes him very much.

"Hey, Cap!" Sam called for him, drawing his attention away from the arachnid kid. Steve jogged over. They were in a wearhouse, hiding from the police who most defiantly wanted to take out Bucky if they hadn't earlier. 

They'd locked Bucky's arm in place with a car, just in case he woke up as Winter and not himself. Peter didn't help them with that. Steve just didn't understand the kids MO, he wanted to talk to him but all he did was stare. It was like he was an actual bug. Maybe he was in shock?

"Stevie." Bucky groaned, tugging at the car that locked him in place at an awkward angle. His features softened toward his closest friend but he couldn't let him out.

"Which Bucky am I talking to?" Steve asked, his brows furrowed.

"Your mom's name was Sarah." Bucky answered. He paused though, only to let out a quiet laugh. "You used to wear newspapers in your shoes."

"Can't read that in a museum." Steve smiled a bit along with Bucky.

"And just like that we're supposed to be cool?" Sam asked, looking at Steve skeptically.

"What did I do?" Bucky had a face full of worry, which has a horrible shift from that slight smile.

"Enough."

"Oh god, I knew this would happen." Bucky huffed, anger spreading across his face now. "Everything HYDRA put inside me is still there. All he had to do is say the goddamn words."

"Who was he?"

"I don't know."

"People are dead. The bombing, the set up... the doctor did all that just to get ten minutes with you. I need you to do a little better "than I don't know."

"He wanted to know about Siberia. Where I was kept." Bucky spoke almost nostalgically, like it was something he had to try hard to remember. "He wanted to know exactly where."

"Why would he need to know that?"

"Because I'm not the only Winter Soldier."

"Who were they?"

"The most elite death squad. More kills than anyone in HYDRA history, and that was before the serum."

"They turn out like you?" Sam jumped in.

"Worse."

"The doctor, could he control them?"

"Enough."

"Said he wanted to see an empire fall?"

"With these guys he could do it. They speak thirty languages, can hide in plain sight. Infiltrate, assassinate, destabilize. They could take a whole country down in one night and you'd never see them coming."

"This would've been a lot easier a week ago." Sam said to Steve after they had let his arm out of the car they'd bended to hold him down. Bucky had walked down to talk with the kid, who was still refusing to come down.

"If we call Tony..." Steve started.

"No, he won't believe us.'

"Even if he did..."

"Who knows if they Accords would let him help." Sam finished for him.

"We're on our own." Steve huffed, looking towards Bucky and Peter as Bucky got Peter to come down. He laid in his arms, embracing tightly.

"Maybe not. I know a guy."

Bucky had to force Peter to crawl down to Earth. He wouldn't look him in the eye.

"Kid, what's up with you?" Bucky asked him, putting a hand over his kid's shoulder.

"I'm fine."

"You can't lie to me."

"Hypocrite." Peter scoffed.

"Is this what this is about? I told you if didn't want this, to run."

"Can you like, actually be quiet? Please?"

"Not until you talk to me." Bucky said, shaking his head and wrapping his arms over his chest.

"This is all my fault, yeah?" Peter looked up at him, tears threatening to spill.

"No. It's not." Bucky immediately placed his hands on either side of his arms, trying to get his son to meet his eyes.

"Yeah, it is. I told you I was a curse, but I thought that maybe I could care about one person. I thought maybe I could care about you, since you could defend yourself, but look at where it got us. I was even gonna retire the Spider suit forever, let my guard down and be domestic. Work on my tech support job. Now we're here though and it's all my fault." Peter mumbled, tears spilling onto his cheek like the fragile thing he was.

"Kid, no. This isn't your fault, and you're not cursed." Bucky huffed, he wrapped his arms around his kid again, pulling him closer. He could feel Steve's and Sam's eyes on him. Peter knew Bucky wouldn't understand, no one ever did in the moment. But Peter, being the monster he was, could see through the cracks to the bigger picture. He has to finish his mission. Before Bucky gets hurt. Before he can get Bucky killed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> make sure to leave a comment with all your constructive criticism or how much I fucked up everything. Love you :)


	12. Chapter 12

"Not sure you understand the concept of a getaway car." Agent 13 said, looking at Steve's questionable choice in cars.

"It's low profile." Steve answered, shrugging as he crossed his arms over his chest. Apparently they didn't make shirts his size seventy years in the future.

"Good, because this stuff tend to draw a crowd." Agent 13 smirked as she opened the back trunk of her car, revealing all of their things. Including but not limited to his closest friend and his sons bags and the kids suit.

Bucky, Peter, and Sam had been left in the cramped little car a few feet away.

"Can you move your seat up?" Bucky asked Sam, who, for some reason, got shot gun.

"No."

Bucky turned to Peter, who was calming down, or at least attempting to calm down from a high altitude panic attack. "13-15-21-4 15-21-4-18." Peter was better at numbers than he was at words. So when numbers meant letters he excelled in his understanding. 

Peter nodded and climbed out of the window, onto the roof, and back through the window on the other side of the car, where Bucky had been initially sitting. He slid head first through the window, ending up with his legs hanging out the window.

"I owe you again." Steve smiled a little.

"Keeping a list." She said, looking back at the car. "You know he kinda tried to kill me?"

"Sorry, I'll put it on the list too." Steve nodded a little, looking down at the astorment of armoury and weaponry. "You know they're gonna come looking for you."

"I know." She looked up at the Captain.

"Thank you, Sharon." He put a hand on her shoulder.

"I should go." Agent 13 nodded a bit, walking away.

"Okay."

Steve turned to see a pair of lanky legs hanging out one of the opened windows and the two other men in the car bickering nonsensically. He could see why Peter would want to be on the floor.

A plane landed as the blue buggy pulled up beside an off white van. Steve got out and so did Sam. Bucky had fished out the noise cancelling headphones and his goggles out of his bag for Peter, so his boy's iron grip would relax a little. He'd calmed down significantly from the attack, but the airplanes were causing him to be jumpy, and he couldn't pretend he was fine to Bucky because he saw straight threw him. A year with somebody will do that.

"Cap." Clint said, stepping forward, a slight smile on his face.

"You know I wouldn't have called if I had any other choice." Steve said, shaking Clint's hand.

"Hey man, you're doing me a favour. Aside, I have a debt."

"Thanks for having my back." Steve spoke as Wanda stepped out behind Clint.

"It was time to get off my ass." Wanda said, shrugging. Steve ignored her for the second.

"How bout our other recruit?" He asked Clint.

"He's rarin' to go. Had to put a little coffee in him but he should be good." Clint opened the van door, revealing a half asleep, middle aged, white dude and his bag.

"What time zone is this?" He sleepily asked, stepping out of the van. Sam gave Steve a look.

"Come on, come on." Clint pushed him over to Steve and Sam. The shock of seeing Captain America waking Scott up a bit.

"Captain America." He outstretched his hand to shake.

"Mr. Lang."

"It's an honor! I'm shaking your hand too long." He was right, Steve was a little uncomfortable. "Wow! This is awesome!" He turned to Wanda and pointed at Steve. "Captain America. I know you too, you're great!"

Wanda humored him and smiled weakly in his direction. Lang grabbed Steve's pecs, Steve turned to shoot a look at Bucky, who gave him a look of sympathy. 

"Jeez. I wanted to say, I know you know a lot of super people so... thanks for thinking of me." Scott smiled some more. "Hey man!" Scott said to Sam.

"What's up Tic-Tac?"

"Uh, good to see you. Look, what happened last time when I-"

"It was a great audition, but it'll never happen again. They tell you what we're up against?" Sam asked Scott.

"Something about some psycho-assiasians?"

"We're outside the law on this one. So if you come with us, you're a wanted man." Steve jumped in, his arms still wrapped around himself.

"Yeah, what else is new?" Scott shrugged, he was a thief after all.

"We should get moving." Bucky called out, he'd gotten out of the car, Peter was still inside, curled up.

"We got a chopper lined up." Clint announced.

Over the loudspeaker a man announced that they were evacuating the airport.

"Stark." Sam commented, arms over his chest.

"Stark?" Scott looked confused.

"Suit up." Steve ordered, close as we'd get to "Avengers assemble," for today. 

The Captain, in full armour and shield, made his way out into the open, moving towards a helicopter. As he approached, something shot out of the sky, causing the helicopter to spark and hiss. It was Stark. The Captain came to a full stop.

The Iron Man came in hot, landing as War Machine came in as well. Both standing in front of the sparking aircraft.

"Wow, it's so weird how you run into people at the airport. Don't you think that's weird?"

"Definitely weird."

"Hear me out Tony," Steve started, trying to reason with his friend. "That doctor, that psychiatrist, he's behind all of this."

Another man came into the scene, this time it was Prince T'Challa.

"Captain."

"Your Highness."

"Anyway-" Tony ignored the panther for now. "Ross gave me thirty-six hours to bring you in. That was twenty-four hours ago. Can you help a brother out?"

"You're after the wrong guy."

"Your judgement is askew. Your old war buddy killed innocent people yesterday."

"And there are five more soldiers just like him. I can't let the doctor find them first Tony. I can't." Steve said, he was desperate to level with them. To get them to understand. If they didn't, he'd just have to go through them.

"Steve." Natasha said, giving away her place to him. "You know what's about to happen. Do you really wanna punch your way out of this one?"

"All right," Tony said after a minute or so. "I've run out of patience. Star-Lord!"

From above, a man wearing a green jacket, yellow sweatshirt, and camo sweats landed onto the helicopter. He had dark skin, a fade and some killer facial hair. The copter crushed under his weight.

"It's StarBoy." He said as one arm cracked into pink flame.

"You've been busy." Steve commented, looking at the alien Tony had reached out to.

"And you've been a complete idiot!" Tony spat. "Dragging in Clint, "recusing," Wanda from a place she doesn't even want to leave, a safe place. I'm trying to keep..." He sighed. "I'm trying to keep you from tearing The Avengers apart."

"You did that when you signed."

"All right. We're done. You're gonna turn Barnes over, you're gonna come with us, now, because it's us or a squad of JSOC guys with no compunction about being impolite." Tony demanded. "Come on."

"We found it." Sam said in his ear piece. "Their quinjet is in hanger five, north runway."

Clint shoots an arrow into the air, above everyone's heads, it explodes. As the ash falls, The Spider-Man appears mid air, he lands with a forward roll. Tony put on his mask and turned around, finding two heat signatures.

"All right, there's two in the parking deck. One of them of Maximoff, I'm gonna grab her. Rhodey, you wanna take Cap?"

"Got two in the terminal, Wilson and Barnes."

"Barnes is mine!" The prince shouted to them.

Steve threw his shield up at War Machine, knocking him back. He caught his shield again, going after the prince shooting the shield at his neck. The prince fell back but got up to continue going after Barnes, getting put in a chokehold that he broke easily from. The prince stood, his claws unsheathed.

"Move, Captain. I won't ask a second time." He ordered. The Captain stood his ground, Prince T'Challa bounced kicked off of his shield.

Off to the side, the alien StarBoy and The Spider-Man were attempting at what looked like a conversation. StarBoy shot a rain of pink flame at Peter, attempting to hit him but missing every shot at the younger boy.

"Look man, you're obviously not from around here! Lemme give you the rundown! You're on the wrong side!" Peter shouted at him.

"I don't really know if I believe that, Iron Guy seemed pretty chill." He shrugged, shooting once more.

"Stark seems like a lot of things, but nobody knows him like me! He's killed everyone that I've ever known! He killed a sixteen year old boy, he let him die and made me watch!" StarBoy pauses, thinking for a moment.

"I'm gonna go with my gut for this one." StarBoy said as he ripped off a wing from the helicopter and threw it at the arachnid. Mid-air he hit it with the pink energy and it crashed onto Peter's shoulders.

"Look, I really I don't want to hurt you." Scott said to Natasha.

"I wouldn't stress about it." Natasha shrugged a bit with a smirk. She kicks him in his kneecap, causing him to groan in pain and clutch at the injured area. While distracted Natasha grabs him by the arm, trying to get him into a more disadvantaged situation but he suddenly disappeared from her grasp. She was flung onto her back, and dragged onto her side. She tazed whatever was wrongly pulling on her, sending Scott flying.

StarBoy had run over on Stark's orders to check out Bucky and Sam. He shot himself in the chest with his own light mid jump, making himself as light as a feather so he could make his way to the terminal. He shot himself again as he reached the window, making himself heavy once again. He landed on the floor and ran after Bucky and Sam. StarBoy threw papers from stands at them, making them as heavy as truck before throwing them, almost hitting Bucky.

Sam came in to get him, but not before Star had a chance to hit him with a weighted business card that knocked him out of the sky and onto the ground. Bucky was making a run toward Sam to help him but StarBoy knocked him down with a brochure.

"This has been fun and all, it's an honor to meet you guys but I think I'm just gonna leave for now, see you in a few." Starboy shrugged, apathetic to their situations as he walked off, putting on some actually other worldly headphones.

"Couldn't you have got your drone on him?" Bucky asked.

Sam turned to Bucky. "I hate you."

"Hey Cap, heads up!" Ant-Man shouted, handing him a toy car and holding up some weird spinny thing with a blue light. "Throw it at this!" He tossed it up into the air. "Now!" Steve did as told. The toy quickly became life sized, crashing down in front of War Machine.

"Oh come on!" Rhodey complained. Prince T'Challa dashed out to save him from the explosion.

"Oh man. I thought it was a water truck!" Scott whined. "Uh, sorry."

"All right, now I'm pissed." Rhodey had gotten up. Natasha had landed on the sideline. Tony helped Natasha up.

"Is this part of the plan?"

"Well, my plan was go easy on them. You wanna switch it up?" Tony asked with fake curiosity. He turned to see Clint and Wanda running up.

"There's our ride!" Clint announced. The rest of the team joined in their march straight ahead, even Peter, who'd snuck off to do calculations and to tweak somethings because he knew that whatever was going on now wasn't the big battle of the day. He flipped in so he was aside his father figure once more.

"Come on!" The Captain yelled to his team.

As they made their march, a yellow beam of light struck the floor. Stopping them in their tracks. Vision had drawn a clear line in front of them.

"Captain Rogers..." Vision started, literally looking down on them. "I know you believe what you're doing is right." Iron Man and Natasha dropped down in front of him. "But for the collective good you must surrender now." War Machine, Prince T'Challa, and StarBoy dropped in as well, standing in unison with the others on their side. Vision descended so he stood at the apex of their side of the line.

"What do we do Cap?" Sam asked both his leader and his close friend, not looking toward him.

"We fight."

The Captain made the first step forward, leading his charge. The Iron took the next one, leading his side into the ensuing chaos.

"Is this something you do everyday on Earth?" StarBoy asked, looking to Tony as he followed.

"Only today, only right now." Tony answered, lifting off the ground, both teams picked up speed quickly. Sam and Wanda took off as well, getting off the pavement.

The Iron Man wound himself up to punch down on Cap's shield, but he held it up, not to himself. The Spider-Kid jumped off of it, hitting into his chest hard and knocking him around inside his tin can. The kid used him as a wall to bounce off of and get out, Steve taking the next shot at him.

They fought like they had never been friends. Like they had never shared late nights, or early mornings together, but they had. That's what made this all so much worse. Bodies flung everywhere, falling and pressing on left and right. Too much pride, too much ego at stake because no one ever wants to be wrong but one of them has to be right.

Peter hopped from one place to another, getting in and out. Helping whoever needed helping but keeping his ultimate focus on taking down Tony. He was so close, he could feel the blood rushing through his veins, he could hear Mr. Stark's heart beat pump, pump, pumping in his ear drums and he was so excited to taste the silence the flateline would bring.

Natasha and Clint, Bucky and T'Challa, Steve and Tony, Rhodey and Sam, Wanda and StarBoy and Vision, and Peter verses everybody who hadn't walked in with him. Clint knocked Natasha onto the ground and held her there. She was much stronger than him, they both knew this.

"We're still friends, right?" She asked.

"Depends on how hard you hit me." He smirked. Natasha kicked and twisted her way out of the lock. Standing back up with relative ease. She aimed for his head, trying to kick out and connected with nothing. A red light surrounded her foot and sent her flying.

"You were pulling your punches." Wanda provided before walking back to the fight.

Bucky wrapped his fingers around the throat of the Prince of Wakanda while the future king kicked up at him. His knee going up into Bucky's stomach.

"I didn't kill your father."

"Then why did you run?" T'Challa asked angrily, peeling Bucky's unnatural arm from around his throat and letting go of him, throwing another punch. Wanda sent him into a ramp as he tried to claw out Bucky's throat.

Peter was flying through the air on his thread when a blast of light knocked him out of the sky. He planned on a cart used to carry suitcases. Tony Stark stood in front of him while he quickly regained composure.

"I used to idolize you, you know, before I knew what a monster you where." Peter said, chest puffed out.

"Oh yeah? What else did the Capsicle tell you about me?"

"Oh no, Steve was the one that told me to stay out of confrontation with you, call him if I get one on one. It's a shame that my com broke."

"Kid, there's a lot of stuff you don't understand going on right now. The best course of action for you would be to go take a nap nap with your plastic cap shield at home."

"You make a spectacle and laugh at the childhood you ripped away from me, from Penny Parker, from Ned Leeds! For that, for their premature deaths you'll pay!" Peter screamed, jumping onto his real father. His blood.

Tony threw Peter off as best he could, but the kid was sticky and swift. He flipped, twisted and tumbled around him, shooting an abnormally tinted web at him.

"F.R.I.D.A.Y, what am I dealing with here?" Tony asked the AI in his suit.

"It seems that the webbing he is shooting at you is coated in an acid designed to eat at your suit." She answered, the web ate the paint quickly and damaged the strength of the suit but other than that it wouldn't kill him.

"F.R.I, analyze fight patterns." She did as asked while Peter kept kicking, punching, and web slinging at him, unaware. She quickly understood the inside of the Spider's head and showed Tony what to do. One quick, heavy beam to the chest sent him flying in the air and crashing on the cement. Tony flew up, going after Sam, shooting beams at the other man in a stalemate to knock him out too.

"Clint can you get him off me?" Sam asked.

"Buckled in?" Clint asked Scott who sat on the tip of his arrow.

"Yeah, no, I'm good. I'm good arrow guy. Let's go! Let's go!" Scott said, hitting the tip of the arrow with an opened palm before he was shot at Tony. He screamed for most of the ride to the iron suit, the one arrow diverging into many to distract the tin can man.

Scott jumped off of the arrow he'd remained on, onto the red and gold suit, easily slipping inside a break in the armour. Clint kept shooting at him, trying to delay the realization that there was an ant-person inside his suit. It didn't keep up for long, one of his gauntlets powering down and refusing to fire at all.

"F.R.I.D.A.Y?" Tony said, meaning to ask the AI what in the hell was going on.

"We have some weapon systems offline."

"What?"

"Oh you gotta- you're gonna have to take this into the shop."

"Who's speaking?"

"It's your conscience. We don't talk a lot these days."

"F.R.I.D.A.Y?"

"Deploying fire suppressions system."

As the AI spoke, a rush of baby blue came toward Scott just as he lifted off another wire.

"Uh-oh." Scott said as he dropped it, taking off in the opposite direction. The cool feeling of the pressurized water knocking him out of the suit and sending him flying once again.

"We gotta go, that guy's probably in Siberia by now." Bucky said to Steve, urgency in his voice, and the bracelet he can talk to his kid's suit by his mouth.

"We gotta draw out the flyers. I'll take Vision, you get to the jet."

"No, you get to the jet!" Sam yelled over the winds to Steve. "The three of you! The rest of us aren't getting out of here."

"As much as I hate to admit it, if we're going to win this one, some of us might have to lose it." Clint spoke through his own inner com, Peter was being offly quiet about this. He showed up beside Bucky.

"This isn't the real fight Steve."

"All right Sam, what's the play?"

"We need a diversion. Something big." Sam explained.

"I got something kinda big." Scott announced to his team. "But I can't hold it very long. On my signal, run like hell. And if I tear myself in half, don't come back for me."

"He's gonna tear himself in half?" Peter and Bucky asked at the same time. They looked at each other. Bucky's eyes asking him why the hell he hadn't been speaking over the com. Peter sent him a message on the bracelet.

"Inner com is broken. Can hear. Can't speak."

"You sure about this Scott?" Steve asked.

"Yeah, I do it all the time. I mean once. In a lab. Then I passed out." Scott over explained himself before muttering to pump himself up.

He jumped onto Rhodey's back as he flew by, still tiny. He got onto his wrist screen, amping everything to its highest setting. In a loud groan he went from small to gigantic, grabbing onto Rhodey's back leg. Dude's having a bad day.

"Holy shit!" Peter exclaimed. Steve and Bucky turned to him.

"Language!" They shouted at the same time before looking at each other in amusement.

Steve looked up at Scott before looking once more at Bucky. "I guess that's the signal."

"Way to go, Tic-Tac!" Sam yelled while Scott swung Rhodey like a dolly. Sam kicked

into Tony, sending him back while Scott threw Rhodey.

"I got him!" StarBoy yelled as he took out his headphones, shooting pink light at Rhodey, freezing him mid air.

Scott stomped on a bus and kicked it into the young prince. Vision stood in front of it before it could touch his majesty. From across the field he saw the red, white, and blue shield run behind a truck. He chased after the three men.

Scott ripped a wing from a plane while StarBoy brought Rhodey down to Earth and unfreezing him. Sam and Tony flew by and Scott brought the wing down on the tin can man. He dodged the fire. RedWing hit him in the face.

Scott stepped in the way of the prince. "If you wanna get to them, you gotta get through me."

T'Challa ran by as Scott attempted to kick him. Crates exploding in his explote, Scott's foot connected with his chest. Scott went to pick up his royal prize when Rhodey started shooting at him. Scott grabbed him again and threw him at the floor hard.

Tony being focused on Rhodey, and the rest of Captain's team coming at him without relent, Steve, Bucky, and Peter almost got away clean. Almost. Vision catches the trio heading off as he engages with the largest entity on the battlefield. He phases through him and knocks the tower down.

Peter's spidey sense tells him the incoming danger, he jumps up and grabs Steve and Bucky in his web. He slings them inside as the tower falls into him. This isn't the first time a building has fallen on him. Wanda attempted to help, but failed as Rhodey managed to distract her for a mere second. Bucky panics and tries to dig his son out while Steve deals with Natasha. Bucky only breathes when he sees the face of his boy, who attacks him out of repulse.

"24-11-2-20-1" Bucky yelled at his boy, as soon as the numbers came out of his mouth he relaxed in his arms. Peter had told him to say that code if he attacked him without having fallen asleep. His boy is okay, one cut in his suit but his boy is just fine. But he's not fine, he's never fine, not really, but maybe he could fool Bucky for now at least because that's all he would need to finish the mission. His life's work. His fate, his reason for being born.

Bucky picks up his boy and rushes him onto the quinjet and they take off. Everyone who was on Stark's side realizes that they had just wasted their time, as the quinjet flies far into the sky. Tony and Rhodey go to play catch up but Sam tailed them. StarBoy had gone and went back to the tower after saving Rhodey.

"Vision I got a bandit on my six." Rhodey spoke over the inter com. Vision had went to comfort Wanda. Sam sent out bombs at him. "Vision! Do you copy? Target his thruster, turn him into a glider." Rhodey ordered. Vision did as asked of him and shot him down, but he hadn't met his mark. Not in the way he'd expected to at least.

All Sam knew was the fall. His wings failing him as he hit the ground, he could hear his bones cracking, snapping against the dry grass of the cloudless, summer, midday. He watched as Steve got away. Tony and Rhodey standing above him. Their masks coming off before the blackened edges became the whole picture for him.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oofer gang I need som validation

"We never talked about... your friend." Steve said to Bucky. Peter had made a web on the ceiling and fallen asleep.

"He's not my friend. He's my son."

"And his mom...?"

"Adopted son."

"His parents are...?"

"Dead, everyone this kid ever cared about has died. He thinks he's cursed, why he wants to kill Stark so bad."

"Who did Stark of his kill?"

"Says everyone. Told me Stark is his dad." Bucky looked back to his son, his face contorted in pain while he slept. "I can't let him kill him. Because after that he'll..." Bucky stopped himself, the images of Peter's online journal still too fresh in his mind. A manifesto like he was a killer. He would be. "What's going to happen to your friends?"

Steve didn't try and force him to speak about the subject. He sighed. "Whatever it is... I'll deal with it."

"I don't know if I'm worth all this Steve."

"What you did all those years... It wasn't you. You didn't have a choice."

"I know. But I did it."

They landed on the snowy mountain banks on Siberia. Bucky wanted to leave Peter there to let him sleep, but his fear of what would happen if he left him alone was greater. He woke him and Peter attacked him again. Steve looked a little shocked and went for his shield.

"Peter, you're okay." Bucky held him for a second, letting him register everything before letting go. He'd taken off his mask, his face was only a little bruised, yet it sunk in sadness when he realized who Bucky was.

Bucky grabbed a gun from a cabinet named Romanoff. The ramp descended slowly and Steve looked at him.

"You remember that time we had to ride back from Rockaway Beach in the back of a freezer truck?" He asked Bucky.

"Was that the time we used our train money to buy hot dogs?" He smirked, looking affectionately towards his closest friend.

"You blew three bucks trying to win that stuffed bear for that red head." Steve laughed.

"What was her name again."

"Dolores, you called her Dot."

"She's gotta be a hundred years right now."

"So are we pal." He put his hand on his friend's shoulder.

"Sorry to interrupt your rom-com moment dads, but we're trying to stop the end of the world." Peter huffed, running ahead.

Bucky called out to his son and followed after him. Upon exiting the quinjet, they saw the doors opened. "He can't have been here more than a few hours." Steve said to his Bucky.

"Long enough to wake them up." Bucky shrugged a bit.

They walked in. Taking the small elevator down. Peter hung high while Steve and Bucky stared into each others eyes. They hit the bottom level and the door opened. Steve nodded to his Bucky and opened the cage. Together they weaved their way through the HYDRA base where Bucky was kept and where Winter survived. Bucky leading the charge with Steve and Peter close behind him.

Behind them came a loud thud, Steve held his shield and Bucky stood over his friend's shoulder with his gun. Peter kept his place on the ceiling.

"You ready?" Steve asked.

"Yeah." Bucky answered him.

The door opened, creaking and groaning as it did so by force. Three bright lights appeared behind it. Tony. He let his mask down. Steve approached slowly and Peter descended on his web.

"You seem a little defensive." Tony spoke. Rhodey stood aside him. Bucky held his son tightly, trying to keep him from killing him, and losing Peter.

"It's been a long day." Steve said lowly, he only cared about Bucky. Nothing but Bucky and what was right.

"At ease soldier, spider, we're not currently after you."

"Then why are you here?" Steve demanded of them.

"Could be your story's not so crazy."

"Maybe."

"Ross has no idea I'm here. I'd like to keep it that way. Otherwise, we gotta arrest each other. That wouldn't be so fun." Tony attempted to joke with his friend.

"Not fun at all." Rhodey agreed with his friend.

"Well that sounds like a lot of paperwork." Steve shrugged, staring down at Tony. He let his shield down. "It's good to see you, Tony, Rhodey."

"You too Cap."

"Hey Manchurian Candidate, Spider-Ling you're killing me. There's a truce here, you can drop..."

Bucky only lowered his weapon when Steve told him it was okay to do so, and Peter jumped from the ceiling, trying to get to his blood. Bucky still held him.

"You try and kill him, you'll be dead before you reach him, you hear me boy?" Bucky whispered.

"That doesn't sound half bad to me, Bucky." He turned and looked at him with the soulless copper eyes of the Spider. His kid was still underneath there. He listened to his orders still, because he's him. His chance was close, and it was only going to get closer and closer and he could finally breathe peacefully knowing the curse would be over.

Together, they all investigated the building. Keeping an eye out for the real villain of the weekend special season finale.

"I got heat signatures." Rhodey said.

"Me too."

"How many?" Steve asked, standing behind them.

"One."

They entered a large room, full of cobalt blue lighting. Bucky kept his gun drawn, scanning the room. Yellow lights turned on as they stepped completely inside and Peter got off the ceiling once again. Bodies in ice were inside the tanks, a monitor showing a green flateline for all of them.

"If it's any comfort," A voice came out over the loudspeaker, the fake doctor. "They died in their sleep."

Bucky looked over the slushied bodies of his associates. "Did you really think I wanted more of you?" the voice over the loudspeaker asked.

"What the hell?" Bucky's brows furrowed in confusion. If this wasn't what he wanted out of this, then what did he want?

"I'm grateful to them though, they brought you here." A light flickered on, the doctor's face appearing from behind a pane of glass. Steve threw his shield at it but it bounced right off. "Please, Captain. The Soviets built this chamber to withstand the laugh blast of UR-100 rockets."

"I'm betting I could beat that." Tony said snarkily but when is he not snarky. Peter could only see red, bright, flashing white light. The man who hurt Bucky and the other man who hurt Bucky, but not before he allowed everyone he ever knew to die were both right in front of him.

"Oh, I'm sure you could, Mr. Stark. Given time. But then you'd never know why you came."

The Prince of Wakanda, T'Challa had snuck in. He was smart enough to realize, now was not the time to take up his fight with Barnes.

"You killed innocent people just so you could bring us here?" Steve asked, disgusted. He approached where Zemo was sitting.

"I've thought about nothing else for over a year. I studied you. I followed you. But now that you're standing here I just realized... there's a bit of green, in the blue of your eyes." He laughs. "How nice to find a flaw?"

"You're Sokovian. Is that what this is about?"

"Sokovia was a failed state long before you blew it to hell. No. I'm here because I made a promise."

"You lost someone?"

He clicked his tongue. "I lost everyone. And so will you." He turned, pressing a button that pulled up footage. December 16, 1991. "An empire toppled by its enemy can rise again. But one which crumbles from within? That's dead. Forever."

Tony looked down at the screen and time slowed down once more. Peter's senses flared up, but he would not act, not yet. Neither would T'Challa. Rhodey recognized only the numbers, he could only assume what the word was, he hoped it wasn't.

"I know that road." Tony spoke, anxiously. "What is this?" He called out to Zemo, the dormant volcano within slowly starting to awake. But in the first few seconds of life, the fire must always be stoked before it may end. Zemo did not answer to his question.

First, a crash. The tape had no noise, but the car flew into the lamp post. A motorcycle drove up and a man got off of it. Howard Stark tried to get help, he crawled away towards a stranger, a stranger out to get him. He pulled him up by his hair. It didn't have audio until it did.

"Sergeant Barnes?" Tony's father asked, Peter's grandpa. Though, it was not a question, rather a statement. Maria's cries for her husband overtook the speakers. Tony stopped watching the tape. Only watching the man in front of him.

The man fell to the floor, getting placed back into his seat. The stranger, Winter, made his way to Maria, quickly ending her life as well. No witnesses. Winter pulled out a gun, approaching a camera, he shot it down and the footage ended.

Tony went to attack Barnes immediately, being stopped by Steve and Rhodey's hand on him. Peter instantly stood in front of his adoptive father, he did not care about his grandparents. Their deaths were unfortunate, a mistake and a sin committed by HYDRA and for that they had paid and will continue to pay. But Bucky didn't do it, and he was damned if he allowed The Monster, The Beast, his father, Anthony Edward Stark, harm another innocent man.

"No, Tony." Steve says. Tony looks back at his friends, no friend, one former.

"Did you know?" He asked Steve Rogers.

"I didn't know it was him."

"Don't bullshit me Rogers! Did you know?"

"Yes."

Tony stepped back, looking at his friend. His former friend. A person he thought he could trust with his life. The friend who lied to him. He'd had quite enough of those, friends that lie to you. He could hear Rhodey try and talk to him but he wasn't having it.

Tony slapped Rogers in the face, sending him flying through the air. Bucky aims his gun at Peter's father, but he powers up his gauntlets sending a beam of light in his direction, knocking the gun out of his hand. Peter jumped in for his father, attacking his blood.

Tony grabbed Bucky by the throat and went flying off with him while Zemo made his escape. Peter chased after the two of them while Rhodey followed afterward, supposing now was the time to support his friend. Peter shot his webbing at Tony, catching onto him but Rhodey knocked into him. Peter got distracted by him and engaged.

Steve went to help his Bucky, his shield hitting him in the head and knocking his blast so it didn't burn Buck's face off. It bounced back into his hand and he slammed himself into Tony. Tony got back up and hit into his shield, throwing him back but he stood his ground. He shot ties at Rogers legs that wouldn't keep him forever but would certainly hold him while Peter and Rhodey went at it. Peter thought it unfortunate for Tony to get what he would assume what would've been his godfather in this. Just another innocent man he corroded with his monstrosity, he didn't want to hurt him, but he had to, to end the curse once and for all.

Bucky threw an uppercut at Tony but Tony just grabbed his natural arm and flew them back. He slammed him into a tank, the sound reverberating throughout the room. Bucky grabbed the gauntlet as Tony powered it up, crushing it. Instead, he tried the missile, which he quickly redirected. It connected with a tower, causing it to almost fall on them. Bucky ripped away from Tony's grasp. Steve had broken the cuffs around his ankles.

"Get out of here!" Steve yelled at Bucky and he listened.

"Go help my son!" Bucky shouted. Steve nodded and went to pry Peter from Rhodey even though he was doing just fine so far. Steve quickly threw his shield at Rhodey, making him lose focus for a second while Peter dug his hand inside the battery. Peter let down Rhodey gently so he could say he'd been a good godson and a merciful monster for those unlike him.

Tony pulled up in front of Bucky as he started to make his run for it. Steve pulled Peter up off of Rhodey, trying to reset the kid's focus like it needed helping to fixate on his blood. Tony took a shot that strayed and Steve jumped in after he missed. Bucky hit a button, looking up at his son who was lurking on the upper floors as the ceiling moved and became a skylight. He was going to get his son out of this mess alive.

"It wasn't him Tony! HYDRA had control of his mind!" Steve yelled trying to reason with Peter's blood father.

"Move!" Tony yelled, unwilling to see any reason at all.

"It wasn't him!"

Steve grabbed his foot, slamming his shield into it and trying to break it. Peter had jumped in front and started tearing at the mask. When he killed him, he wanted to see his face. He wanted to see his eyes fill with the same fear Peter had when he watched everything he loved die. Because the only thing Tony, his true father loves, is himself.

Tony broke away, his mask in Peter's hand. Tony shot a laser at the ceiling so Steve and Peter could not get to him, things and ash tumbling from the sky.

"Left boot jet failing." F.R.I.D.A.Y announced to him as he watched Bucky struggle to escape out of the skylight. "Flight systems compromised." Telling him this only after he floated up a few levels.

"Aw crap." Tony complained, landing. He went up a few more as Bucky looked toward him, running as fast he could.

He managed to kick Bucky down a few levels. Powering up his gauntlet once more to shoot at him but Peter and Steve flew in. Steve's shield suddenly protecting Bucky and sending the laser straight back at Tony. Peter grabbed him as he fell with his web. He swung him around like a doggy toy before letting go and sending him into the wall.

"Kill mode." Peter told Ned.

"No."

"What do you mean no?"

"I said what I said Peter, I'm not helping you kill your dad. It's fucked up."

"Ned." Peter spoke with a threatening tone. "Whatever you're trying to say, say it. I don't have time and if you say something I don't like I'm donating you to an elementary school."

"I'll make this quick then." Ned sighed as Peter continued to swing. "You have an unhealthy obsession with your past and wanting revenge on your dad, Pete. I don't want that for you because you need to let go."

"What do you know Ned, you're a fucking advanced chatbot!" Peter scoffed angrily.

"I know who I am, Pete." Ned spoke with a great sadness. "And I think it's time you let go."

"Ned, no. No, no, no, no! Don't do this not right now!" He begged.

"I'll see you on the other side, lover boy."

In the corner of his vision a system alert appeared: Ned.exe has been deleted. Peter screamed. The only thing he could feel was anger, not the pain, only the anger. He'd just do this on his own.

Peter went over to his real father, he started to tear at the parts on his suit in an unfocused haze. Bucky looked at him worriedly while Steve helped him up. Tony shot at Peter, connecting with his chest and sending him flying.

"He's not gonna stop Bucky, go. I'll get Peter." Steve ordered his friend as Tony flew up once more to kill Bucky.

Steve shot at Tony with a heavy twine. It wrapped around his metal neck and brought him down as Steve fell to the ground, hitting levels as they descended once more. Steve landed beside Peter who was standing up. Bucky was almost to the top.

Tony stood up, readying to end Bucky once and for all this time. Peter jumped onto his chest just as he shot at him, hitting what kept the ceiling open. It crashed with a loud riverbed bang and sended Bucky who was almost out back down. Tony plucked the kid off of him and threw him at Steve, going after Bucky. As he reached him, Bucky had a metal pipe at the ready, slamming it into Tony's partially uncovered face. They fought but Tony managed to get Bucky in a headlock, holding the pipe against his throat.

"Do you even remember them?" He whispered.

"I remember all of them." Bucky kicked them off the level. Steve grabbed onto Tony's legs and knocked the three of them down to the floor. Peter webbed his dad and Steve, bringing Bucky and him to the level of which Peter stood. Before Bucky could grab him Peter was already falling in his place after Tony.

Tony got up, seeing Peter standing in front of him. He took off his mask and cast it aside. He could hear Bucky and Steve trying to catch up with them.

"Do you remember me?" Peter asked, looking at his father. Bucky saw the anger in both their eyes, total and absolute unrepressed rage. The resemblance was uncanny.

"Yeah, Spider-Ling, how could I forget you and your fantastic web slinging fun?"

"That's not what I asked. Do you remember me?"

"Kid, you need to get out of here and stay out of my way."

"That's what I told everyone else when you showed up."

"Kid, I have no clue what your deal is with me. Couldn't you just spit it out already."

"You took everything I loved, that's my deal, Anthony." Bucky and Steve appeared behind Tony.

"This isn't gonna change what happened." Steve said.

"I don't care. He killed my mom."

Hypocrite.

Tony lunged at Bucky but Peter jumped onto him, slamming his fists into his back. Bucky up cutted him again while Steve moved in front of him. Peter was flung off his back into the cement wall as Steve and Tony fought. Bucky grabbed Steve's shield and came down on Tony. He shot a beam but Bucky deflected with the shield. Bucky threw it to Steve who caught it and started to hit Tony with it. Together the three of them knocked Tony onto the ground. The shield passing from one hand to the next.

Tony got one hit in, and sent Steve back. Bucky stayed in front of Tony's face while Peter jumped in Steve place and kept behind him. Tony tried to shoot a beam out at Peter's dad but Bucky caught his arm and aimed it at the ceiling, Peter knocked Tony's legs out from under him, sending him forward when the beam stopped. Peter crawled on top and ripped pieces off his backplate.

"You don't even remember me because you're such a fucking drunkard. You can't even remember your son when he's looking at you!" Peter yelled, he'd completely torn the backing off of Tony. He knocked him over so he laid on his back.

"Wha-" Tony mumbled in shock because this kid, his kid as he had been just told, had torn a major part of his suit. He got a good look at his face, it was like looking in a magic mirror that seemed to send him back 17 or so years.

"Do you even remember my mom?! You killed her, but I doubt you care!" Peter yelled, he was sobbing but he didn't notice as he continued to tear his father's tin can open.

"Miss Brown..?"

Peter looked down at him with at first shock, but then came disgust, anger, and a hard feeling of injustice that was to be served quickly with the metal piece that would do well as a makeshift knife.

"MARY PARKER!" Peter screamed, bring down the metal onto Tony, but not before the swift blue thing out of the corner of his eye could tackle him, sending him off of his father and into the wall.

"Killing him won't solve anything Peter. If anything it'll make you more like him!" Steve told him. Peter looked at him for a second, he let Steve think he calmed down but nothing could put out the rage in his belly. "Letting him live with this will be the sweeter revenge, kid."

Steve got off of him, starting to walk away, he turned around to get the hell out of this depressing place they were in.

"If I can't kill the greatest evil, then I can sure absolve it of the next best thing." Peter announced, trying to send the blade through himself. A metal hand met it though. Bucky.

On the rooftop, Prince T'Challa approached Zemo. He set his helmet in the snow.

"My father lived outside the city." Zemo spoke to the royal man. "I thought we would be safe there. My son was excited. He could see The Iron Man from the car window. I told my wife "Don't worry. They're fighting in the city. We're miles from harm." When the dust cleared... and the screaming stopped... It took me two days until I found their bodies. My father... still holding my wife and son in his arms. And the Avengers? They went home. I knew I couldn't kill them. More powerful men then me have tried. But, if I could get them to kill each other... I'm sorry about your father. He seemed a good man, with a dutiful son."

"Vengeance has consumed you. It is consuming them." T'Challa's eyes twitched, and let out a shaky sigh. This was the man that killed his father... "I'm done letting it consume me." His claws finally retracted. "Justice will come soon enough."

"Tell that to the dead." Zemo said, aiming his gun to his head, his finger ghosting over the trigger. T'Challa held the barrel as he tried to shoot and no bullet ever came to Zemo.

"The living are not done with you, yet." He spoke to Zemo, holding him in a headlock so he wouldn't be able to move.

'No." Peter whispered, the crumbled blade falling out of his hand. His mission. Compromised because of someone he'd accidently let care about him. "I told you, if you interfered with my mission I would kill you." Peter sobbed this father figure, voice trembling and quaking like the rest of his body. "Why do you never listen to me!" Peter tried to lung at Bucky, tears dripping down his face in pain. Bucky didn't try and fight back though, he only wrapped his arms around Peter, picking him up like he was little kid again and Peter didn't fight anymore. His shoulders sank forward as he ugly cried into his dad's chest.

Bucky carried him off while Steve and Tony watched. Bucky didn't want anyone to see his kid like this. He'd almost failed him. Peter wailed in his arms, he wanted to go back and end it, he wanted Bucky to end him. He'd be fine eventually, but not right now. Neither of them were.

Steve looked down at his former friend with shame.

"Look at what you did, Tony." He shook his head, dropping his shield and his helmet. "You can keep it. I'm gonna go clean up your mess. One last time."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tomorrows the last chapter people. are you excited, or just as sad as I am? leave your thoughts in the comments if you have them. if you don't thanks for coming on this journey wit me :)


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the final chapter. are you ready for the sequel?

Wakanda. After T'Challa dropped Zemo off for the Americans to deal with, he offered Bucky, Steve, and Peter refuge in his home country. They had taken Bucky's arm with his permission. He put his sister up to the task of "fixing" the broken white boys.

"You sure about this?" Steve asked his closest friend, a father. He sighed.

"I can't trust my own mind." Bucky said, looking up at him and smiling a little. "So until they figure out how to get this stuff out of my head, I think going back under is the best thing. For everybody." Steve nodded a little, looking down. He would respect his friends decision. "Come here, both of you."

Peter, who hadn't spoken much, if at all since they arrived leaned over along with Steve for a group hug. He wouldn't see his dad for a while, he was going to be put into intensive therapy while he was on ice. Bucky kissed Peter's forehead, and him on the lips.

Steve stared out the window after Bucky had been put on ice, and Peter had been whisked away into therapy. The prince walked up beside him, soon he would be king.

"Thank you for this." Steve said to the prince.

"Your friend, his son, and my father... they were all victims.. And if I can help two of them find peace..."

"You know, if they find out they're here... they'll come for them." Steve looked to T'Challa.

"Let them try."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> make sure you you subscribe to me if you want to get a notification when the sequel is posted. though that won't be for little bit since I'm doing pics independent of this first. or you could just go follow my twitter under the same name, be warned about that though, a lot of political opinions. make sure to leave me a comment with your thought if you had one or two. have a blessed day or whatever. if you're not religious then stay cool :^)

**Author's Note:**

> hope you enjoyed. please comment and give me kudos to validate me and my poor ego.


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